6. Chapter Six #2
Basim lifts the freckled teen’s head, using the boy's rusty red hair as he inspects the black ring around his lips. “Embertouch. Highly poisonous. Instant death for mortal creatures.”
“And immortal?”
“Depends on which, but it is believed it can kill higher beings over many weeks of agony. The princess wanted you to suffer.” He lets the servant’s face drop back into the disarray of white peach jam and buttered crust.
“Cunning little devil, my beautiful Evelia is.”
“Should I have her taken to the dungeon?”
I raise my hand to consider backhanding him across the room but let my arm fall to my side. “There is business to attend to in the throne room. Bring her to me in one hour.”
I kick my golden dining chair, and after my bastard servant plops to the ground, I wrap my tendrils around his body until it dissolves. He deserves no honor for touching my chair and pie, and there will be no evidence of his pointless existence.
The wind prickles my cheeks as I walk across the open bridge that leads from my residence into the more public portions of my castle. Archways allow me to throw anyone who displeases me to their deaths on the sharp rocks below.
Vibrant music plays with each gust of wind as intended by the architect of my structure, and it pleases me to hear jovial melodies while I carry out my wrath.
The archways are my favorite place to pass judgment for that reason, and they carry to my throne room where my stone throne sits on a black platform.
My lands stretch across my view from my seat.
Blue mountains and snaking rivers join the deep green of my forests and sand-scorched lands to the east. No other place in all the realms is as exquisite.
I toss my hand, and six guards push the two massive stone doors open inch by inch with the muscles they grow in sparring each day. The task remains difficult for them day after day, but they struggle to overcome the magic I place on it to make life harder for them. It creates resilient soldiers.
My subjects enter once the door is fully open, rushing in with nervous energy clouding around them. Many wear tattered clothing and are an embarrassment to my kingdom. They should work harder to make a better life for themselves.
A man hobbles to the front, and his pitiful state is disgusting. I’d like to dissolve him like I did the pie eater, but the people all have safety in my throne room. It’s a policy Evelia convinced me of when she used to not hate me. For her, I keep it in place.
He clutches his cane and leans to the right, dragging his left leg behind him. “Your Majesty.” He bows low and wobbles, failing to right himself after the task.
I scowl and twirl my hand. “If you could get on with the point of you bothering me.”
He stabilizes and flinches. “Yes, Your Majesty, I apologize. We are in need of better medication and food in your southern province. We are suffering from the dark blight.”
“Very well. I will send three healers to your kingdom to do what they can, and you may choose seeds and ten small animals from the reserve.”
He nods his head in the only rapid bowing he can muster. “Thank you! Thank you for your generosity!”
I roll my eyes and flick my hand toward the door. “Be gone from my sight.”
It’s a relief when the guards help him exit, but several more subjects approach, all reeking of filth.
I order my servants to burn strong incense to mask the stenches radiating from peasant bodies.
Prisoners are brought last, and I have to march several to the bridge to avoid killing them in my throne room and breaking my promise to Evelia.
Basim and three other guards surround Evelia when they bring her into the throne room. They have her arms bound behind her in magical ropes like she’s any other prisoner. The guards will be dealt with later for the transgression. They push her forward but hesitate at my glare.
“Come here, darling.” I beckon her forward with my finger.
Her nose and mouth twitch. “I hate you!”
“Such wonderful ways you greet me.”
“I’d like to greet you with another pie.”
I hold her chin between my thumb and finger, and she lifts her chin defiantly, refusing to look me in the eye.
I chuckle at her words and laugh louder when she purses her lips. “I am not a shadow dweller nor a dark elf. You can mark those off your list. The pie would not have hurt me.”
“As though you’d tell me the truth, and it would cross a lot more off my list if that is true.”
“Yes, it would, wouldn’t it? All the slightly powerful entities would have found misery in a single bite. It may have given me mild discomfort. I could have at least pretended it did for your sake.”
She spits at me and turns red when my smile broadens.
I grip her chin harder and force her head toward me. “You think that bothers me when I crave your tongue in my mouth and your body beneath mine while you squirm from pleasure rather than rage?”
“You’re a bastard!”
“Yes, you would know that.”
I snap my fingers, and her ropes fall to the ground.
A knife pierces my ribs, and my chest crackles and spews out smoke and molten fire.
I rip it out, and it seals over with no damage done.
The blade smells sickly sweet from whatever elixir Evelia dipped it into and ashy from being buried in my heart.
Her shoulders and face fall. “More to cross off my list, or will you kill me now?”
“You are much more devious than I imagined, my rose.” I lock her in between my knees and run the blade gently over her throat.
“Never would I kill you. Never. Even if you figure out the perfect poison to end me, and I have moments left for revenge. I’d let your hate consume me.
I’d let it burn me inside until you found satisfaction in my demise. ”
“Tell me how to make that happen. It’s all that will please me," she says.
Her breathing quickens as I press the knife just a fraction more against her skin. “We could have so much fun with this.”
“Let me go!”
“So you can plot new ways to kill me?”
“Yes.”
The amusement she brings me is the only happiness I have ever found, that and everything else about her. I hold her death in my hands, and she demands release so she can find my fatal weakness. It makes me want to fly her to my bed and sate all the temptations she’s tortured me with over the years.
I tuck her silky locks behind her ear. “My stunning Evelia, my sweet song, perhaps I will find my death from not having you. The craving will kill me.”
“Then I shall not let you near me.” She jerks away and walks out of my throne room.
I impale my guards with my tendrils and throw them against the wall. “The rest of you take note. You will not restrain my wife by any means.”
Blood slips from the left guard’s mouth. “She was a prisoner, Your Majesty.”
His head rolls to the ground, and I burn both guards to ashes. It is at that moment that I realize I broke my promise to Evelia about not killing in my throne room. My temper gets the better of me when it comes to her protection. I will do better next time.