The Kingdom's Crown (Inheritance of Hunger #3) - Kathryn Moon Page 0,85

disgusting enough as it is, but I am a prince, not your mount."

Aric's eyes widened on mine. Holden.

There was a masculine moan of 'no' and the sound of grappling, and Aric's arm trapped me to the wall as I tried to jump out into the hall.

"Aric! He said—"

"I know, princess," Aric said with a grimace painting his face. He bent and kissed my forehead. "Just wait a beat."

I could hear the struggle of them together, Camellia's harsh cries and the grunts from Holden, until my heartbeat drowned them out with its pounding in my ears.

"Now," Daniel whispered, and Aric released me.

I whipped into the hall, my eyes finding them on the other end, Holden smeared on the floor with Camellia seated astride him. His hands were wrapped tight around her arms, but her own were on his throat, the garbled sounds he made suddenly clear.

"Camellia! No!"

"Bry—" Aric began before thinking better of arguing with me, and instead only chasing after me as I ran down the hall to intervene.

Magic was already heavy in my palms, and Camellia only lifted her face and grinned, face transformed as she chased pleasure. I knew that look, I'd been that predator, but never against one of my own Chosen.

Camellia groaned as Holden twisted and jerked beneath her. I couldn't tell if she was pushing magic into him already, forcing him to crave her brutal treatment of him. His face was red, hands growing weak, and I thought he might've been trying to toss her off, but Camellia moaned as if he was thrusting to meet her urgency.

"Camellia, stop!" I snapped, finally reaching them, finally grabbing onto her shoulders to try and haul her away.

She roared out a snarling scream, releasing Holden's throat to grab at my wrists. Pain like a hot iron, like the blade Emory had thrust into my shoulder, burned its way up my arms. I gritted my teeth against the blaze, focusing on the sound of Holden's strangled breath, using Camellia's grip to tear her off of him. I twisted my hands from her shoulders to wrap around her wrists too, our magic clashing like cymbals, shattering its way up into my skull.

"Get Cress and Amos," Aric said, his voice distant as I pulled on Camellia's wrists and her vise grip squeezed brutally around my own.

Her legs kicked and she screeched and thrashed, but she didn't have the strength to do more than hold on. Stars, she was so brittle looking now, her silver gown hung from her like wilted petals.

"Let me go! Let me go!"

"You're—" Holden's voice was wretched, tangled and faint. "You're going to see—see war for this."

Camellia's entire body bucked as I pulled her to the side, tugging her onto her feet and wrapping her arms around her own chest, holding her to the wall with all my weight.

"You could've killed him, Camellia," I hissed in her ear. "What are you thinking?"

She cursed me, spitting as she jumped and twisted in place.

"Bryony?"

"I'm fine," I answered Aric, refusing to take my eyes off my sister. "Holden?"

"Your Highness, let me ease your throat a little."

"Fuck you," Camellia hissed to me with great emphasis.

"He is a prince, Camellia." I frowned at myself and shook my head. "He is your Chosen."

"Yes, mine. He's meant to serve me, not bitch and moan and demand what he likes."

I gritted my teeth. She was like a bird against me, I was half afraid I would break something if I was too firm with her. She seemed to tremble, and there was a painful scratch and buzz everywhere she touched me, the twisted magic of her Hunger clashing against mine. All at once, Camellia sagged and went limp.

"Let me go," she moaned. "Oh, let me go, it hurts."

It hurt me too, the whole thing. Seeing her this way, knowing what she was capable of, the friction of our magic meeting and biting and clawing at one another just as we did.

Commotion followed, boots echoing in the hall, and in a moment Amos, Cress, Owen, and Daniel arrived with three of my mother's ladies.

"I'll take her, Your Highness," one woman said, she was stocky and older than my mother, with a firm and familiar stare focused on my sister. "We'll get her back to her rooms with her Chosen and she'll settle. It's all the activity."

"It's entirely her own doing," I answered back, but I pushed Camellia into the woman's arms gratefully, eyeing them carefully. Camellia fought a little, but I was right about her strength. She