Forty-Four
After spectering my unconscious parents to their rebuilt and polished home (it seemed someone had been back and repaired the damage of the night before), Julian and I parted ways with little more than a goodbye. At least we'd see each other at the party, I told myself.
I navigated the halls of the Keep completely and utterly lost.
I would have stayed lost if Damien hadn't spectered in front of me as I turned the corner.
He smiled as he watched me. "You're here."
I couldn't help my smile. "Of course, I am." I looked around. "I got lost."
He took my bag from over my shoulder. The same bag I'd taken with me to Tartus now held Axel's book. A gift, Julian said, from Skryen.
"I noticed. You've been making your way into the kitchens."
I paused. "Wow. Now that I think about it, I think I only had an apple today."
He smiled, taking my hand. "Come on, I have dinner for you upstairs. How are your parents?"
I laughed. "Funny story. They went skinny dipping after drinking wine. They passed out before I could explain anything."
He raised an eyebrow.
"Julian said they'd be fine after sleeping it off. They're back home."
We were back in the study from the day before - had it only been a day?
It seemed like it was a lifetime ago when I found Asmo snooping around Damien's things.
We had spectered near the window and I watched with bated breath the lights of the small city beneath us dance along with the sprites out in the forest in the inky darkness of the night.
The room wasn't very high up but high enough that I could see a new mountain range in the distance and a city nestled right behind it.
Damien walked away from the window and to the middle of the room. "I took the liberty of going to one of your favorite places and picking up one of your favorite dishes."
I turned to him with a smile. A delicate place setting was on a small table in the middle of the room. A silver ornate cover sat in the middle right in front of the chair. "Oh? What is it?"
He gave the boyish cocky smile I missed. "Come here, sit down and find out."
I did as he said and the exhaustion of the day came over me in waves as soon as I sat. Gods, I was exhausted.
Damien lifted the cover and I could hardly contain my excitement. "Is this-"
He nodded before I finished my sentence.
I took a fork and began to eat. I moaned as the fluffy pastry dissolved in my mouth. "This is delicious. It's just like home."
He laughed. "Good. Eat. I know you're starving."
The mushroom wellington of my dreams was tastier than I remembered. I stuffed my mouth with the mashed potatoes. I shook my head. "This is amazing. Thank you."
Damien crossed his arms as he watched me. "You're welcome. Having Azazeal in the human world was tricky. Glamours don't work on him and he refused to leave his sword behind. We almost had the cops called on us until I told them he was cosplaying as his favorite video game villain."
I hid my laugh as I ate.
Delight sparkled in his eyes and I thought I would melt right then and there. "No, no, you can laugh. It was definitely something I didn't think I'd ever do." He smiled. "I do think that we will need to teach the kitchen staff your favorite recipes since you're actually staying with us."
I laughed, covering my mouth as I spoke, "I look forward to it." I took a drink from the glass of water sitting next to my plate. "Where is he, anyway?"
Damien pointed to the study door with his chin. "Outside the room, he won't move, doesn't even eat. Doesn't need to. He follows every command as you give it. But just you, no one else. He follows power, so he's technically following you."
I shook my head. "There has to be something we can give him to do. I don't want him following me around every time I leave any room." I sighed. "I do want to help Azazeal but I'm not sure how. Robyn mentioned that the Magister created him, maybe there's something he can do."
Damien tilted his head as he looked at me. "If there's any information that he's willing to give, he can give it to Oren. I don't want you anywhere near him ever again."
I sat back in my seat as I watched him. "Hard to argue that.
I don't want to see him again either." The last I'd seen him, he'd been brought from the dungeon.
He was a small, nervous shadow of a man too scared to even look me in the eye.
I felt nothing but mortifying disgust for him especially for what he had done to Azazeal and others like him - however many there were.
I shuddered at the memory of him smiling at Damien in the throne room. He'd known that Robyn had possessed him before anyone else did. He had given him a wicked knowing smile.
I watched Damien as he picked up a book on his desk and began to read it silently. He seemed to be settling back into his normal self as the day had gone by. But something was different.
There was a slight tremor in the hand that flipped the pages of the book, a skittish look in his eyes as he watched the door and the book in front of him. It would be subtle to anyone that didn't know him, maybe a slightly nervous human quality.
But Damien had never been nervous.
And he certainly wasn't human.
I stood from the table and walked over to him.
He looked up from his book, his amethyst eyes full of glee. "What did you think?"
I smiled as I approached him. "It was absolutely perfect."
He set his book down on the desk behind him and crossed his arms. "Good. That was the idea."
I looked at his hands. "How are you feeling?"
He noticed my gaze and raised the hand that had been shaking earlier. "That's a question I don't know how to answer yet. I think I'm getting there," he said softly. "I'm fascinated that I can feel my fingers again, is that strange?"
I shook my head, leaning against the desk as he was. "No. Not at all."
He gestured to the book he set down behind him. "I was going through some old books to see if I could find anything that could help." He shrugged. "Nothing so far."
I frowned. "Help with what?"
He sighed. "I don't remember anything from his meetings- I'm trying to understand what his next phase of the plan is - why he needed you, who 'they' are."
I swallowed. "Can't it wait?"
He gave me a disapproving look. "No. No, it can't. I want to know why he needed you what the next step of his plans were."
I sighed. "Here I was thinking we could actually celebrate that you're here." I rolled my eyes. "I am so na?ve."
"Em." His tone was one of frustration, exhaustion.
I crossed my arms. "I think we deserve a break.
Yes," I added with emphasis as he shot me another disapproving look, "I do.
You especially." I approached him as he crossed his legs still leaning on the desk.
"All of this can wait. It can wait one night.
" I grabbed his hand. "I think there's a couple of episodes of Doctor Who we could catch up on.
A Star Wars movie we can probably watch again? "
He frowned. "How can you think about that stuff now?"
I groaned. "Because saving you has been the only thing consuming my thoughts.
It's been the only thing on my mind and finally, finally I have you again.
So, yes, I just want one eensy teensy tiny night - or gods forbid a week- to not think about how this man wanted to marry me or use me or whatever the hell his plan for me was. "
He shook his head. "I'm sorry, but no. You're much too important to just ignore whatever plans he had for you even for one night."
My closed fists at my side shook in anger. "This again? This? I am so tired of everyone saying I'm so important. Why now? Because I'm queen now? This last of my kind, again, more powerful than everyone else horse shit?"
He had a hand over his mouth, stifling his laugh.
"Are you laughing at me, Damien? Are you seriously laughing at me right now?"
His amethyst eyes were amused as he watched me. "You're still the same clueless creature I fell in love with."
All anger drained from me in an instant.
"It's adorable," he said as he strode towards me.
"You're important to others because of those things, yes.
" He took my left hand. "You're important to me because you're the woman I love.
" He raised my hand to his lips. "Haven't stopped loving.
" He turned my hand over and planted a small kiss on the inside palm.
He looked at me, his eyes burning into mine.
"I will rip apart whoever tries to harm you again.
I will destroy anything or anyone that stands in my way.
And that, coming from a very powerful dark fae is a very dangerous proposition indeed. "
I swallowed and I was surprised my voice didn't shake as I spoke. "You really do think highly of yourself."
The cocky smile was back. "I'm only stating fact, Em." His hand moved to my cheek. "Until the party then, I will stop all of this until the party. Since this means so much to you."
I nodded. "We start after the party."
He smiled. "He used my lines, you know."
I frowned watching him. "What?"
"Robyn when he asked you to be his. He used my lines."
I want you to be mine just as I would be yours, he'd said. "It was very sweet."
He craned his neck down, placing his forehead against mine. "I'm sorry for what happened last night. I'm sorry that he used me to do those things to you."
I shook my head. "That wasn't you."
"Do you want to be with me despite that? Despite knowing that I'd almost -" He couldn't continue.
I grasped his hands in mine. "Yes," I didn't look away from him. "And that wasn't you."
He gave a small chuckle.
"Why don't we take our time? Make up our own rule?"
He smiled. "I think that's a great idea."
I looked at the dark ring on my right hand in the sun.
It didn't reflect the sunlight like the sapphire ring my parents had given me when I was young.
It seemed to absorb the light around it.
The violet stone was unnaturally dark along with the black band around it.
It was stunning, the most beautiful ring I'd ever seen.
Damien chuckled, his laugh lifting my head as it laid on his stomach. "You won't stop looking at it."
I squinted as I brought it closer. "It doesn't reflect sunlight."
Damien put his book down, looking at it as well. "I guess not."
"Did you know?"
He shook his head as he lifted the book again. "I've never seen it before last week when it appeared on your finger." His eyes started scanning the page of the book again. "Only queens wear it. My mother passed away before my father ascended the throne. Maybe Tianna wore it but I don't remember."
I looked back at it again. "It's weird."
He chuckled again. "Which part?"
I smiled too, knowing what he meant. Me being queen? The ring? "All of it."
I looked at him as he continued reading. His long hair fluttered slightly in the breeze of the gardens. He looked so tired.
He had nightmares of his own every night. Nightmares that would cause the foundations of the Keep to shake violently and darkness to ooze from the walls. It terrified everyone that lived and worked in the Keep to the point that some left.
I wasn't sure how I'd managed to wake him the first night or the second night. After I'd wake him, I'd stay with him in his room, watching him until he fell asleep again. Or talk to him until dawn.
But he still hadn't mentioned what happened to him.
And I wasn't going to push him.
Our relationship was still innocent, it hadn't progressed past hand-holding and small pecks on the cheek. It would begin to feel awkward and immediately, we'd pull away.
I wasn't going to push him on that either.
He wasn't himself and I knew that it would take him time to recover.
I definitely wasn't going to push him on recovering and taking his crown back.
I looked at him as I laid my head on his lap.
I'd found him lounging in the Royal Gardens propped up against a tree, his legs crossed on the rich green grass.
I made myself comfortable sitting next to him, bathing in the shade of the large tree he sat under.
My head lay on his lap as he read like we did in the old times.
I watched the sunlight through the branches and leaves of the tree.
Trying to make light of the situation, I cleared my throat. "I bet Leah would be jealous of it."
I watched a small smile touch his lips though he didn't look away from his book. "I think you're right."
I turned over looking at him. "Why did you pick Leah? Was it like Asmo said? Because she was the first dark fae you came across?"
He didn't look up from his book. "The woman I wanted to be with was human.
I would lose the crown if I were to be with her.
She was also clueless about how I felt. So, I chose the first dark faerie that had not been tainted by the Underworld Court and it's dark ties and influence.
" He looked at me from the top of his book and must have noticed the look I was giving him.
"Yes, you were that human." He looked at the book again. "Leah was convenient. That was all."
"And then you found out Leah was Leah-"
"Because my best friend, the person who knew her, didn't tell me the whole truth." He looked at me again. "Had you told me how terrible she was to you I would have never considered her."
I gnawed on my lower lip, looking away. "You were happy for the first time in months-"
"Alteaza!"
I looked up to find Perri, the wispy dark-haired fae in charge of the party that night. Her green eyes were hypnotic and I always found myself somewhat jealous of her good looks. Her caramel skin absolutely glowed in the sun. "We need to start getting you ready."
I frowned. "What? Is it time already?"
She nodded enthusiastically. "Yes, we need to start dressing you, making sure you have last minute alterations, go to the vault and have the appropriate crown ready -"
I shook my head. "Whoa. No crown. I don't want to wear one."
Damien whispered in my ear. "I'm afraid you must. It is tradition. I will go with you."
I looked at him, whispering, "Don't leave me alone with her. She's scary when you don't choose the color she likes."
"Alteaza," Perri cleared her throat. "It is imperative that we start sooner rather than later."
Damien kissed my cheek as I moved to stand. "I'll catch up. I have to run over and get some things ready."
I frowned.
"It's for Julian, he will probably want me to hold up his end of the bargain for helping you."
Perri helped me to my feet then proceeded to drag me back inside the Keep. "Come on, Alteaza, we can't keep everyone waiting."
I looked back at Damien as he lazily lounged on the grass of the gardens, watching me. "A-Are you sure you don't want to join?"
Damien laughed as I followed Perri into the Keep.