Chapter 193 - 192: Only The Power of a King is Superior to All!

"I just hope you’re right, Caelestis." She moved away from his chest only to reach for his lips and kiss them.

She soon spread her legs over his and positioned herself on his lap, her hand resting against his cheek, feeling the warmth of him beneath her palm.

"Eleanore?" He tilted his head, his hands grabbing her cheeks, pulling her closer. "I love you."

Eleanore smiles at that and crashes her mouth against his. Caelestis hand travels to the small of her back, pulling her closer, intensifying the kiss.

He breaks the kiss and sees Eleanore, gasping for air as she presses her forehead against his. A smile erupts on his face seeing her like that. He gently kisses on her forehead then her cheeks and bits gently the tip of her ear.

Eleaore laughs, as she shrugs her shoulders on that. "Caeles!"

"Hmm— Elley?" His fingers traced patterns on her nape, as he kissed down her neck. Pulling down the sleeve of her loose night gown and kissing where it once was, before biting at her collarbone.

Her neck tilts back, as her lips part in the pleasure. Caelestis hand travels down her waist to her thigh and at the hem of her gown, he inserts his hand into it. When his hot hands come in contact with Eleanore’s thighs, slowly travelling up to her sensitive spot she looks at him.

Her hands enter his hair, playing with it pulling it when Caelestis suddenly rises from the couch and positions himself over her. He strokes a few strands of her hair behind his ear as he looks at her.

"Elley?" He calls her, moving away from her.

He opens the buttons of his shirt, sliding it down his shoulder and closing in on Eleanore right after.

"Wow, I never knew your body was so perfect, Caelestis." She traces her fingers down her chest, this his strong abs, not stopping until Cealestis caught them.

"Elley, since when did you become so naughty?" He says, stretching her hand over her forehead.

Eleanore places her free palm on his face and Caelestis closes his eyes, melting into her touch. "Since always, you just didn’t know." She smiles.

Cealesti kisses her, before loosening his grip on her wrist and moving down. His hand slides into her dress, spreading her legs apart as he kneels on the ground. "Eleanore, you might not know this, but I am more naughty than you."

"Is this a competition?" She looks down at him. His face between her legs, smiling at her.

He licks at the depth of her thigh, and she instantly shivers from it. Her nails dig deep into the covers of the pillow, as his tongue licks at the opening of her folds, soon moving deeper and sharper. Her legs squeezed his head between them, as she arched back. Eyes, falling back from the intense pressure beneath her.

"Haa!" She gasps for air, moaning, every time his tongue moves inside her.

Soon, it was becoming so intensifying that she didn’t know how to process it. Her thighs tightened, as her back arched further into nothingness. Her neck is stationed on the edge of the couch’s head, her mouth parting as she releases herself into his mouth.

Caelestis moves back, his tongue dripping with what juices she had sprayed into his mouth. "Elley, you are delicious." He says, grabbing her mouth into his, giving her the taste of what she had given him.

—

Queen Isadora was in her private sitting room when Alastor arrived, still in his ceremonial blues from the party, though he’d long since abandoned any pretense of composure by the time he reached her door. She took one look at his face and rose immediately, setting aside the book she’d been reading.

"Alastor?"

He didn’t answer right away. He simply crossed the room and sank down beside her on the settee, and when she reached out to touch his shoulder, whatever restraint he’d been holding onto since the ballroom finally broke. He lowered his head into her lap the way he had as a boy, shoulders shaking, and the queen, his mother was startled yet she simply began stroking his hair the way she always had, letting him fall apart without demanding an explanation first.

"Lauriel," he finally managed, voice muffled and raw. "They took her. Threw her in a cell right alongside her father, and I couldn’t do a single thing to stop it."

"You love that girl," Isadora said softly.

The queen, although had stopped attending any banquets long after the last birthday banquet of her little boy, still knew everything that happened there. Isadora wanted to rest from all the palace duties, she was too tired and old for them now. Thus, when she heard about Lauriel, she was very happy for Alastor but even that got shattered very quickly like all her happiness ever did.

"I love her mother," he said. "I know she had nothing to do with it, I saw her face. That wasn’t a performance. She was as shocked as anyone in that ballroom. And I still had to stand there and watch guards drag her away, because apparently my word means nothing against a law written before either of us was even born and that of the King."

Isadora was quiet for a long moment, her hand still moving gently through his hair, though something more calculating had settled behind her eyes. "You’re the crown prince, Alastor. Your word should carry more weight than that."

"It should. It doesn’t though. Not against precedent this old, not without setting off a hundred nobles demanding the same exception the moment it suits them." He let out a bitter, exhausted laugh. "I have a title and no actual power to use it for the one thing I’ve ever truly wanted."

"That’s not entirely true," Isadora said carefully.

He lifted his head slightly, studying her. "What do you mean?"

"You’re the crown prince," she said again, slower this time. "Heir to the throne. But an heir’s word is easily overruled by council, by precedent, by a king who outranks you in every meaningful sense. A king’s word, however..." She let the sentence trail, watching him carefully to see if the implication landed.

Alastor sat up fully now, something shifting behind his exhausted expression. "You’re talking about the crown itself."

"I’m talking about what you could actually do, if you held it," Isadora said simply. "As king, you wouldn’t need to ask permission to change an old law. You can do whatever you want and no one will stop you, not even the council. That is the power of a king."