A Dowry of Blood (A Dowry of Blood, #1)

by S.T. Gibson

But I will not accept a world behind bars, Constanta. I must always have my freedom. So I worked my magic with gossip and bribes and carefully exposed secrets, and the next thing you know my father is wasting away of gout in some remote hunting lodge, out of the public eye.”

Now I understood why you were so enamored with her. She was as cunning as you were, and as cold as a Transylvanian winter. Beneath the fripperies and the giggles there was a girl made of steel, one who would do whatever it took to survive.

You could never resist a survivor. Or a mirror.

“If I could take you away from all this tomorrow, would you let me?” “Yes.” You smiled against her skin. “Good.”

She threw a dark-eyed glance through her lashes at me. It was a look men would have razed whole cities to the ground for.

tried to keep my voice level. I was being invited to bed with you both, and you would be enjoying each other tonight, whether I came or not. “Later, perhaps. I’d like to take some of the night air first.”

It felt like something that was happening to me, but I had agreed to it, hadn’t I? Part of me wanted this. Wanted her. I shouldn’t be feeling so dismayed.

I would know every inch of her. She would not be able to hide anything from me. Not her nakedness, not her secrets, not her designs for you.

She must not have thought it seemly to moan in the presence of her lover’s wife.

She was a cornucopia overflowing with carnal delights. My hands itched to touch her, but I maintained my icy mask.

Magdalena, ever-willing, held her arm out to me. Those lovely fingers curled, beckoning me closer. “Please,” she said, voice sweet as a berry so ripe it was ready to burst.

I was furious with you. You had manufactured my consent every step of the way, a mere formality. This had always been your design for the both of us; we were always going to end up here, in this bed.

Her mouth was warm and willing, and when she made one of those soft sounds against my lips, I shuddered. She tugged me down gently onto the bed, forming the shape of that word again before the buck of your hips snatched her breath away. Please.

“You,” I said, kissing her with more urgency as I allowed you to make short work of my laces, “are a torment.”

esire makes idiots of all of us. But you already knew that part, didn’t you?

agdalena sighed into my kiss and I knew I would kill for her, die for her, do it all over again and then some.

This was happening too fast, I wasn’t ready for this, I wasn’t ready to share my life for ever with another one of your wives, I wasn’t…

I could scarcely tell the difference between your two mouths in the dark, that’s how close the three of us were.

There was a flash of her steel again, as compelling as it was frightening. She would not be made the world’s victim, that much was obvious.

And as Magdalena wound her fingers around my wrists and covered my chest in hot kisses, calling me sister with that mischievous smile on her face, I couldn’t help but wonder if I was being trained, too.

Maybe she didn’t believe that taking up with you meant the total obliteration of her previous life. She would learn, in time.

But she was also brilliant, and beautiful, and so sure of who she was and what she wanted out of the world.

I fell in love with her quickly, even as my head railed against the stupid machinations of my heart.

There was an uncontrollable fire in her that was hard to look away from, much less resist, and the more time we spent together, the more my admiration for her grew.

There wasn’t much hope for me, after that. Far from stifling my love for you, my feelings for her simply stoked the devotion that enveloped my heart whenever you walked into a room.

You called us your little foxes, and you were our north star, guiding us through the night.

we were both thrilled to hear her thoughts on political developments across the continents.

You warned her against too much correspondence with the outside world, against jeopardizing our secret, but you indulged her habits in those early years.

It was your honeymoon after all, this grand tour across all the European cities she had always dreamed of visiting. She should be allowed some little indulgences. It was her right as a new bride.

You wouldn’t start hiding her letters and discouraging her from answering her aging cohorts until much later,...

You chafed against Venice, its seething color and swirling masses of people, but I reveled in it. The bustle reminded me so much of my Vienna.

If only the Great Council of Venice would bend their ears to a foreigner, and a woman no less, they would have a powerful weapon at their disposal.

“I’m busy, little one.” Magdalena put on one of her spectacular pouts. A well-timed pout from her could probably have brought down the walls of Troy.

“And you can go. Take your sister and give me some peace. I’m very absorbed at the moment, if you can’t tell, my love.” Magdalena whined, but I was elated. You were giving us permission to traverse the city alone.

“I’ll get my capelet,” I announced, trying to keep the excitement out of my voice. I didn’t want you to change your mind at the last minute and decide we needed our usual supervision.

You were fond of these paternalistic rules, always circumscribing our freedom with little laws.

“I would have let her fight, if I was in charge.” I smiled at this. It was hard not to smile at Magdalena when her mind was set on something, declaring her will like a true high-born lady.

Magdalena took a sharp breath, her throat fluttering. I leaned in closer to her, wanting to savor every bit of her pleasure. Through her eyes, I was able to experience the story for the first time all over again.

Her joy went through me like lightning, catching fire in my chest.

She turned her face towards mine, nudging my nose with her own. “Don’t tell me you think we’re rivals, dear Constanta. Haven’t you realized by now that there’s enough of him for each of us?”

“I’m not thinking about him,” I said, and to my surprise, I was being honest.

But now Magdalena had my undivided attention. “I’m talking about us, you and me. Let’s be honest with each other, for once.”

She was content to glide in and out of my bed, teasing me mercilessly one day and then sliding her arms around my neck and calling me beloved the next, and she never saw the contradiction in her actions.

I, however, took love much more seriously. Love was no girlhood game. It was an iron yoke, forged in fire and heavy to wear. I suppose I wanted to know once and for all if Magdalena really loved me, even if it was just in her way.

“You are half my heart, Constanta,” she said with as much seriousness in her eyes as when she wrote her long letters of political advice. “We have our spats, but that will always be true.”

“Let’s be sisters,” she said. “Really and truly. The kind of bond that no one can separate, no matter how they try. Even if we’re on opposite ends of the Earth, you’ll have a bit of my blood in your veins and I’ll have a bit of yours.”

We pressed our thumbs together and Magdalena kissed me hard, her mouth bruising mine as our blood mingled.

“I want to celebrate Carnival with you,” I breathed, breaking our kiss. “Tonight?” Magdalena said. Her eyes were wide and sparkling, delighted by my unexpected whim. “Tonight. I want to see the city with you, and I want to remember our first Carnival with you by my side.”

Having Magdalena all to myself was a special delight that I didn’t intend to waste. I kissed every inch of her as though she were a holy relic, sloughing off her dress with the delicate care I might use while unwrapping a communion chalice from its linen.

She whispered my name like a prayer as I worshipped the secret place between her thighs with my mouth.