Dorian was tired. It had only been a year since he, Aelin, and everyone else had defeated Erawan and Maeve. Only a year since Aelin had earned back her crown with literal blood, sweat, and tears. He was happy for her, but gods he hated ruling. He hated having to deal with maneuverings of the court, regardless of whether or not he was king. The banquets and balls, rebuilding Adarlan and trade agreements. And signing documents, he hated that the most. Hours on end reading and signing documents and he was done.
He made his way back to his chambers, he was ready to fall asleep. He didn't think that he could be bothered to change. All Dorian wanted was some sleep, and maybe a day to himself. He opened his door and almost helped in surprise.
"Hello, princeling." Manon Blackbeack-Crochan stood in his chambers leaning against the bed frame.
"Hello, witchling." He walked toward her.
"Why am I not surprised that you managed to make your way into my bed chambers without notifying any guards?" Manon smirked.
"What guards? I was so busy walking in the front door I didn't notice any."
Dorian smiled. "I guess that means I'll have to go talk to my guards. Maybe a personal talk with the king would have them be more observant."
Dorian turned away as if to actually go and talk to the guards only to have Manon come up behind him and spin him around. Manon then leaned in and kissed Dorian on the lips. She pulled away after a moment.
"Don't you dare leave me like that princeling." Dorian laughed.
"I wouldn't dream of it." Then he pulled back for a second.
"But why are you here?"
"If you aren't happy to see me I can just leave." Now it was Dorian's turn to grab Manon and say, "Don't you dare, witchling." Manon grinned and said, "I thought so. However, I do have a message for you."
Dorian lifted an eyebrow. "It's from Aelin, she has invited us to spend Samhuinn in Terrasen." Dorian looked at her.
"I doubt that you were in Terrasen to receive this directly from Aelin. Am I going to have to console a terrified messenger tonight?"
Manon smiled, putting her iron teeth on full display. "I wouldn't worry about that." And after seeing Dorian's horrified look she said, "don't worry he's still alive, he probably will wake up with a sound headache but he is still alive."
Dorian rolled his eyes and chuckled. "What am I going to do with you, you know this can't go unpunished." Manon approached Dorian with a hunger in her eyes, running a hand from his neck to his chest and down his torso.
"I can think of a few punishments worthy of this crime." She looked up at him and kissed him again, and Dorian growled. "You sound like, how does Aelin put it, a territorial Fae bastard?" Manon said without breaking the kiss. Dorian chuckled, "if I were a territorial Fae bastard, your clothes would have been on the floor and I would have had you pinned to the bed the moment I walked in this room."
Dorian kissed her again, working his lips down her body as they began undoing each other's shirts. Dorian threw Manon's shirt to the floor, he was about to put his there as well when there was a knock on the door. Manon looked up at him and Dorian sighed, "One moment, let me take care of this."
Dorian opened the door, his shirt half off, to find a messenger looking back at him. "A message for you Majesty, from Queen Aelin Ashryver Galathynius." The messenger handed him a small scroll with the Terrasen royal seal on it. A stag with a flame in its antlers.
"Thank you." Dorian closed the door and looked at Manon. Manon just smiled. "So maybe the messenger is fine and I just received one that had a list of everyone invited." Dorian smiled back, placing the scroll on his desk and throwing his shirt next to Manon's on the floor. "Attacking a royal messenger is a crime, but lying to a King." Dorian smiled hungrily as Manon put on as much of an innocent look as an Ironteeth witch could muster.
"This calls for a whole different punishment." Dorian used his magic, sending invisible hand to undo Manon's trousers as he stalked towards her and put her on the bed. He threw her pants to the floor and used the invisible hands to pin her to the bed. Manon just frowned. "Is this how you treat criminals?" Manon said playfully.
"Oh what shall I do, just a poor defenseless lady being forced into such awful conditions." Manon mock sighed and Dorian just looked at her with hunger in his eyes. "Lying to a King is a very serious crime, but I supposed I could be convinced to lessen your sentence..." Manon smiled and spread her legs just a little bit. "What must I do your Majesty?" At that Dorian completely lost himself, all he could say was, "Good girl."