He tasted sweet like the jam, and he was so willing, willing to do anything I asked for any reason, even behave this way in front of my grandmother, the dowager queen. Cosmo made it easy at every step for me to care for him, as happy to please me as Owen was, always careful to note my needs. I wanted to do the same for him from this moment on.
I sighed, and the Hunger was threaded through as Cosmo licked into my mouth, warming my veins and clinging to both our skin. I eased away from the kiss slowly, lowering one hand down to the floor and forcing the magic out of me with a soft push. It didn't go as easily as when I came, like the Hunger knew it hadn't really been satisfied with just a kiss, and it left me with a heavier, drowsy feeling as it bled out of me.
And then my grandmother gasped, porcelain clinking together, edges repairing with little chimes and scratches as Cosmo and I settled with me stretched beneath him on the couch. He raised his head, winking at me as I blushed, and then he rolled to fit against the back of the couch. I propped my head up on the heel of my hand and looked to my grandmother. Her eyes were on the floor.
"What have you—How did you do that?" Grandmother asked, leaning slowly forward to lift the plate from the floor.
Not only had I repaired the plate, replacing the pink rose pattern with silver and gold vines and blossoms, I'd also accidentally turned the crumbs of toast and jam into a pile of fresh strawberries.
"How did you think we repaired the palace?" I asked, trying not to smirk at the openly shocked expression that washed over my grandmother's face. She paled and sank back into her chair, the plate of strawberries resting in her lap.
"Our magic…" She lifted a strawberry up, running a thumb over the seeds and the bright green leaves.
"You didn't know?" I asked, watching her marvel at the simple fruit. Not that I'd known I could make strawberries out of jam, only that I knew the Hunger could create seemingly out of its own whims.
Grandmother raised the berry to her lips, eyes widening as she took a bite and juice spilled onto her lip. She hummed and stared down at the fruit in her hand and then back at me. "I want you to tell me everything that's happened since you arrived in the north, Bryony."
2
Bryony
“I wish I'd seen it before," Grandmother murmured, staring up at the glass roof of the greenhouse. "Not that I don't believe you, dear," she said, patting the back of my hand.
One palace tour and my relationship with my grandmother had transformed practically full circle. At least enough so that when she called me 'dear,' it didn't sound like she was thinking of strangling me.
"I understand it's hard to believe," I said.
Grandmother held my arm for support, the long journey through the palace tiring her by the time we'd reached the greenhouse. Cosmo was still with us, and Thao and Wendell were outside chasing geese in their tiger forms for sport.
"I still don't really understand how it works," I admitted. "Was I the cause of the rainstorm that hit the north after the festival? Or did I affect the fields differently?"
"Did you choose the design?" Grandmother asked absently, pointing out the panels of stained glass that lit up the plants of the greenhouse floor with colored rays of light.
"Mm? No, those are new. I don't really notice when most things happen. I just throw the magic out so it doesn't force my Chosen," I said.
"Force them? Bryony, the role of the Chosen is one of honor."
"The only choice in the matter is ours, Grandmother! It isn't right! Especially not when our magic can make them aroused."
"You are still very prudish for all your accomplishments," Grandmother muttered, shaking her head.
Cosmo snorted, perched on the ledge by a large fern with his sketchbook in his lap, eyes glancing up as he grinned at me.
"You disagree, young man?" Grandmother snapped.
"Prudish isn't a word I'd use for my princess, Your Majesty," Cosmo said with a respectful dip of his head. "She simply puts great store in the comfort of others before herself."
I bounced nervously on my toes as Grandmother stared at Cosmo with her usual, fierce squint.
"Mm. I suppose." I beamed at Cosmo briefly before sobering as Grandmother turned to stare at me again. "I still have concerns. You can't simply storm over the council—"
"But, Grandmother—"
"You have no right to speak over me, and you know it," Grandmother said, stilling my tongue with an arch of her brow. "But I think I'd like to be present for a meeting regarding the taxes. We can't waive them indefinitely; you know this. However, the council may have reigned with too much freedom here in the north. I've found Lord Roderick an amenable and reasonable man in the past, but he is still only a man, and they tend to be creatures of ego."
I refrained from commenting, but I caught Cosmo's smile out of the corner of my eye.
"You haven't taken their little spy into bed, have you?"
"Ugh. No, Grandmother."
"Hmm. Yes, I suppose that's not something we have to worry about with you, is it? That's convenient. I was never as ruled by my Hunger as your sister and mother are, but I still found myself in a few vulnerable positions when it made demands against my better judgment," Grandmother said softly, sliding free of my offered arm and moving to take a seat at the tea-table under a large exotic palm.
I blinked, watching her slow movements and stiff posture as she sank down into the chair. "Vulnerable positions?" I asked, frowning.
"Mmm? Oh, never mind that. If you do decide to bed him, you make him yours. It's easy enough to win devotion from men," Grandmother said with a wave of her hand.
"Bryony excels at it," Cosmo murmured, grinning at me.
"Does she? Yes, that's good." My grandmother nodded absently, staring around the greenhouse. She looked tired, and a little frail, and I remembered how the days of traveling had left me aching. It must've been worse for her.
"Would you like me to call for tea, Grandmother?" I asked.
"Call for Lady Prudence. The company of the youth tires me," Grandmother said, adding bite to her tone and a glare in her eyes, but for once, I knew she was teasing. "Bring your tigers in. Are they docile in their forms?"
"Thao is more docile as a tiger than a man," I said, grinning and making Grandmother chuckle. I went to one of the open windows as Cosmo went into the hall to send the maid after Lady Pru.
"Oh, don't whistle, Bryony. How unladylike."
"You taught me to whistle, Grandmother."
"For the dogs, Bryony."
I kept my back turned to her as I smirked and watched Wendell and Thao loping toward us. I thought they were a little like dogs in their animal forms, although I knew that might easily change if it needed to. I went to the door and stood with it open, smiling as Thao and Wendell entered, leaning their vast shoulders heavily into me and marking up my skirt with dust and grass.
"I think the dowager queen wants to pet you," I whispered.
Thao huffed, but Wendell padded directly toward my grandmother, drawing out an uncharacteristic giggle as he dropped his massive head on her knee.