Chapter 30 Azrael #2
“Whether it be respect or fear, I don’t know. They might fear the power I have working my way up the ranks so quickly. They probably wonder how I did it.”
“How did you do it?”
“Secrets, rose,” I hummed, opening the door, only to slow when I saw her standing behind the chair, her eyes locked on something across the room.
My eyes quickly tracked hers before she looked down. There was a picture of a hummingbird on the far wall, midflight.
Hmm.
I turned back to her, taking her in. The dress she picked was lovely. Made of a light material, it fell around her body in soft waves, clinging only to her waist before it fell freely to mid-thigh.
She had tied the ribbon around her breasts, cupping them perfectly into the fabric.
Of course, this dress was meant to be worn without a bra, so she hadn’t even put on the strapless one meant for her other outfits.
Her sleeves fell off her shoulders, the material bunching slightly around her perky round tits, and around her plump, round ass.
Despite what they had done to her, stressing her into starving, putting her body through an immense amount of strain her entire life, she had grown into quite a beautiful young woman. She was nowhere near stick thin, she had beautiful curves, but she wasn’t quite as thick as the daffodil either.
I suppose I had never noticed before. Why would I? Up until now, she had been far too young for my taste.
“Don’t you have to share it with Poppy?”
I watched her for another moment before heading for the picture of the hummingbird, my steps slow.
“Red is new to the congregation. She has to abide by the rules they lay out for newcomers. Which means that she’s not allowed to even be on the premises after the final prayer.
If they ask her about something she isn’t supposed to know and suddenly she knows it, they’ll start asking questions which will either put her in a situation much like the ones you and the daffodil were in, or it will lead to me getting killed. ”
“Tick tock goes the clock,” she told me. “What are you waiting for?”
“Every story has a twist, some even I didn’t expect,” I replied, turning from the hummingbird to the little sinner.
She was standing with her hands folded at her hips, her chin close to her chest, her breathing steady rather than short and heaving as it had been in that corset. “From the stories your brothers have told me, there isn’t much you don’t account for.”
My smile grew. “So, they do talk about me.”
“It shouldn’t be so surprising, considering what you’ve been doing. Those kids are all home now because of you,” she informed me. “Some will need a lifetime of therapy, but they’re with adults they can learn to trust again.”
“Hmm,” I hummed. “Don’t take it as my heart softening, dear wild rose.”
“You don’t have a heart, Azrael,” she commented evenly. “But you do have morals. Children are too innocent for you to just leave to the wolves.”
I angled my head, studying the way her unwashed hair fell in strands around her face and shoulders.
She did her best to keep it out of her face, not wanting their scent anywhere near her, I assumed, knowing that she would rather have it down.
“Braid your hair,” I told her, not wanting her mind distracted by anything that wasn’t me.
“Did you call me just to let me know that they were gossiping? I always know they gossip, what else can they do but gossip?”
But the rose had gone very quiet. “You’re with her?”
I watched as Scarlett stepped around the chair and sat down.
She grabbed the brush and began brushing through her hair, the ends already tangled again from the mess that was left.
I needed a bigger water basin, perhaps a separate one for her hair.
I hated seeing what they left behind just as much as she hated feeling it.
Me being her betrothed now, it meant that I could be in here before and after her little sessions with the Leaders.
It meant I could choose to be in the room with them while they had them.
Would I?
Yes.
I wouldn’t look away. I would watch what they did to her, count the seconds, memorize those grunts, because it’s what she had done. If I couldn’t stop it, I would allow it to fester within me, just as it was festering inside her.
“Yes,” I said simply, watching as she divided her hair into two sections.
“Tell me about her. Anything.”
“Why? So you can sympathize? So you can fester? So you can tell your precious husband all about it and sit and stew in your perpetual anger?”
“So I can know the girl who got your attention.”
I chuckled. “Nobody has gotten my attention, rose. Be still your romantic heart, I feel no such things.”
“Wait,” she said, as if knowing I was about to hang up. “Malachi wants to speak with you. He believed it was a waste of time trying to text you, so he asked us all if we could relay the message.”
The timing wasn’t optimal, but alas, how could I say no to father dearest?
“Message relayed.” I hung up, sliding the phone into my pocket.
I’d throw it away the second I stepped out of the church’s front doors.
“Things are shifting, little sinner,” I told her, walking towards the table in front of her.
“The spades are cracking, the castle slowly crumbling from the inside out. You must be patient now and listen. Do you understand me?”
She tapped her finger as she braided her hair.
“Good. I have unexpected business to attend to this afternoon, so I won’t be staying,” I told her, watching her shoulders fall a hair.
“But don’t worry, you won’t have any visitors this week, and if you do, they will answer to me.
Change into your clothes when you are done braiding your hair.
Those braids will be a symbol of what we are doing. ”
Without hesitation, she finished braiding her hair, using the ties in the drawer of her desk to tie them off before she stood and found her pile of church clothes.
Before I turned away, I watched as she hesitated, running her fingers down her stomach and the skirt, gripping the hem of it in her soft hands.
I turned away, wondering if she has hesitated taking off these dresses during our last sessions. If she loved them so much, she should have some of her own.
Minutes later, I heard the chair shift, and I turned just in time to see her removing her hands from the back of it.
I studied her carefully as she adjusted herself in the uncomfortable church clothes she was always forced to wear. “Surprised?”
She tapped her finger.
I lifted my chin. “While I am a fan of consent, right now, if I asked, you would say yes. Not because you wanted to, but because you have to. Until you are able to tell me ‘no’ when I ask you to do something, respect is all you’ll be given.”
I caught the slight tilt of her chin before she readjusted herself.
To anyone else, she would have been as still as a statue, but I have spent years studying the human form, studying muscles, shifts in demeanor, energy, pupil reactions.
I saw it all, even the small shifts of a person groomed into submission.
“Watching someone change is not respectful,” I explained to her.
“When was the last time you were out from under the view of a camera, besides the sessions you have shared with me?”
She didn’t respond, and how could she? It wasn’t a yes or no question.
“Years, I assume.”
She tapped her finger.
“Little sinner, unless you ask me to disrespect you, respect is all you’ve earned. Not watching you change is what civilians would call ‘bare minimum’. It’s sad that you think you don’t deserve that.”
The tops of her cheeks twitched upward.
I thought back over my sentences. “The disrespect they give you is not the same kind you can earn with me. But you are not ready to earn that. Come.”
She stepped around the table, pausing just a foot away.
I shook my head. “Walk to the door and wait.”
She did as I asked, pausing just beside the door, her hands folded at her hips.
I walked over to the clothes, grabbing the dress and boots she had just taken off before meeting her at the door and opening it for her.
“Go. You will walk beside me, and you will always go through the door first. That is how a queen is treated, even by the Hatter who has enslaved her, and I am nothing if not faithful to my Queen.”
Her hands tightened, her jaw feathering ever so slightly before she stepped into the hall, the smell of vomit still lingering, but the bucket itself gone.
Good. I would hate to make a bad impression on my first day as her new betrothed.
We walked to the door to the Back Hall, and I opened it for her again, letting her out to the sanctuary where Charles, Thomas, and Garrett still lingered.
“What the Hell?” Thomas bit.
“Thomas, language,” Garrett lectured.
“He’s already changed her hair,” he argued. “Look at her! The Daylight Whore.”
“A queen also ignores the comments of those beneath her,” I told her under my breath.
We walked in tandem to the sanctuary doors, of which I opened, and she walked through. Thomas’ disagreements followed us out the front doors, the sky filled with clouds on this early Spring day.
I paused outside of the church, glancing towards the parking lot to see what remained.
Charles’ car.
Garrett’s car.
Thomas’ van.
My bike and the van I used to transport the children.
“Well, this just won’t do,” I spoke clearly. “Don’t worry, little sinner, we’ll get this cleared up by the time I pick you up again, for now,” I gestured towards the van.
I could feel her uncertainty as well as I could feel the cool air against my skin, but she walked beside me without hesitation, doing as she was told like the obedient little slave to the church she had been beaten to be.
I led her to the passenger door and opened it for her, causing her to outwardly hesitate this time around.
I angled my head. “This is not a test, little sinner. I’m not a taxi service. You will sit in the front seat where you belong.”
She flexed her fingers carefully before stepping forward and carefully crawling into the van seat.
I shut the door and took apart my phone, tossing one piece into the grass as I walked around the front of the van, my eyes drifting towards the front of the church to find the three remaining members locking up, Thomas watching me carefully.
I gave him a smile. Yes, the game was changing rapidly now, and if they weren’t quick enough, they wouldn’t be able to keep up.