Knight of Pentacles (Knights of the Tarot Book 3) Read Free Page B

gem-encrusted, relic-strewn corridor leading to the royal bedchamber. If the protocols played out as usual, he would soon be afforded the opportunity to ogle her attractions to his heart’s content. For Queen Morgan, who considered foreplay a chore, generally staffed out the priming of her knights to her ladies-in-waiting.
    Inside the royal bedchamber, the queen, clad in a diaphanous dressing gown, reclined on the tufted silk chaise at the foot of her canopy bed. Her womb, as usual, was heavy with child. Even as Axel’s chest tightened with dread, his groin tingled with onrushing arousal.
    She might be wicked, vain, and selfish, but she was still the most seductive creature he had ever beheld. Her skin was polished alabaster, her lips were ripe strawberries, and her eyes were as crystalline and perfect as the emerald into which he had carved Teiwaz . Only one thing would have made her more beguiling: if her long, thick hair were flaming red instead of jet black.
    His perfect woman was a shieldmaiden with hair all the colors of autumn—an ideal that no longer existed in the world of today.
    He looked around him. The elegant chamber, decorated in rich shades of gold, always made him think of a beehive. Though it was light out, the drapes had been drawn to shut out the sun. Candles burned atop every surface, filling the room with warm amber light and the scent of melting wax.
    In the beginning, he had loved her, owing to her beauty and his naïve delusions about love. With the brush of youthful romanticism, he had painted her as Isolde, the queen whose love he was destined to share. Time and awareness removed the clouds from his eyes. What a blind fool he had been. But then, when first he came to Avalon, he’d had little experience with women.
    Though he had bedded quite a few and had worshipped one or two from afar, never had he experienced anything he could call a genuine relationship.
    Now, Queen Morgan would never allow him a wife. Even if she did, what lass worth having would want to bind herself to an enslaved shade confined to a small patch of land?
    As the protocol demanded, he got down on his knees, joined his hands, and bowed his head. “Your Majesty.”
    “My knight,” she returned with frost on the words. “How good of you to respond so promptly to my summons. But then, you have always served me with the utmost devotion and obedience, have you not?”
    He kept his focus on the floor. “I flatter myself that I have, my queen.”
    “Do you know the reason I have requested your presence this day?”
    Surprised by the question, he lifted his gaze to find hers searing into his face. “I assumed it was for the usual reason, Your Majesty.”
    “Well, you assumed incorrectly, my knight.” The fire in her eyes threatened to set him ablaze. “For I have called you here to account for your betrayal.”
    “My betrayal? I know not what you mean.”
    “Then let me be more explicit,” she said. “I granted Sir Leith an audience at your behest. And now he has made off with my magic chalice—and deprived me of my tithe. Do I not have good reason to hold you culpable?”
    Fear’s icy fingers curled around Axel’s cods. She did barbarous things to punish the knights who betrayed her. Crucifixion, castration, curses, and impalement, among other unspeakable cruelties. Bitterness flooded his heart and fisted his hands. How could he ever have loved such a cold-blooded creature?
    “I swear to you on everything I hold sacred that I had no inkling of what he meant to do. Until this moment, I believed him to be chained in your dungeon waiting to be tithed.”
    She rose from the chaise, walked over to him, and stroked his head like a dog’s. “I want to believe you.” Sliding her hand down the side of his face, she entangled her fingers in his beard before jerking his gaze to hers. “But I still must have the Cup of Truth back. And my revenge. A task I shall entrust to you, my allegedly faithful knight. And if you fail