Castel POV
I slowly turned my head back toward the frozen maid, my mind already weaving the telekinetic threads to snap her neck.
"Cas, don't," Kiono muttered, his voice tight.
"I think you got the roles mixed up, Kiono. I don't take orders from you. I give the orders, and you follow."
"I still and will always love her," he replied, his eyes fixed blindly on the floor, the raw desperation in his voice almost pathetic.
"Well, time is running out," I smirked, my mind tightening the invisible noose around the girl's throat, "and your little toy is about to lose her head."
Suddenly, a sharp, gasp shattered the tension in the room. Arastella's eyes snapped open. She looked up at me from the pillows, her pupils dilated with a burning, hatred.
I felt a dark thrill spark in my chest. I loved it.
Without even turning my head to look, I flicked a fraction of my telekinetic power toward the maid. The invisible force hit her like a battering ram, launching her backward away from my Queen, straight toward the stone wall.
Kiono instinctively rushed forward to catch her, but the girl gathered her own balance midair, using some strange leverage to stop her own momentum just before her spine cracked against the wall.
She hit the floor on her feet, coughing, and immediately snarled at Kiono as he reached for her. "Get away from me!"
Kiono froze, stepping back instantly without a single word. Interesting, I thought, my eyes narrowing.Very interesting indeed. But I had to focus on my Queen.
The maid immediately scrambled toward the doors, desperate to leave the room, but Arastella bolted upright on the mattress.
"Imeno! Icht voi!" Arastella called out, the words tearing from her throat.
It was a language I knew absolutely nothing of, rolling syllables flowing off her tongue with a fluid authority. The maid stopped dead in her tracks. She turned back, her eyes wide, and spoke two words in response: "Mah-ko fa ota ccon esie."
A deep, irritation rose under my skin. "I hate being in the dark in my own palace," the walls vibrating with a subtle warning.
"Kiono, what did they just say to each other?"
The maid's head snapped toward Kiono in absolute, paralyzed shock, as though she had no idea he could speak the tongue.
"The Queen said, *wait, don't go*," Kiono translated flatly, his voice entirely dead. "And the maid replied, *remember what I told you*."
He called her a maid. Not by her name. Not with the soft warmth he usually wasted on her. There was definitely something much deeper going on between these two, a secret bleeding out right in front of me.
I looked between the Queen on the bed and the trembling maid by the door, a flawless, wicked plot assembling in my mind.
"Remember when I made that offer for you to be the Queen's protector?" I asked, a dark smile curving my lips.
"Well, now it's time you fulfill those duties."
If the only way I could really get to Arastella's guarded heart was by using this little pet of Kiono's as leverage, I would do it gladly.
Realizing she had no choice, the maid slowly sank to her knees, her head bowed to the stone. "Thank you, my King."
I turned back to my bed, reaching out to touch Arastella's face. "How do you feel? Are you in pain anywhere?"
She slapped my hand away, pulling herself back against the headboard. "Thanks to you, I can't return, and my people are in pain! And you think what? That I was going to be standing here with a smile, waiting for you?!"
She aggressively kicked off the heavy covers and stood up, her hair falling down her back like a living flame.
Hearing her speak to me like this with absolutely no fear, completely untamed by my gravity did something to my heart. I didn't care if this was love or pure obsession anymore she was never, ever leaving this palace. I would break her legs and tie her up myself if I had to.
"Get out," she hissed, pointing a finger at the door.
I smiled, completely charmed by the fire in her chest. "Already playing the role of a Queen so perfectly."
"I don't want to see you right now," she whispered, her voice cracking with a sudden, heavy sorrow.
"Is it too much for the big, bad King to allow me to grieve my people?"
She leaned down on the edge of the bed, planting her hand against the mattress to balance herself so she could look me dead in my eyes, before deliberately rolling them and backing away.
"I am sorry to have upset you on our wedding night," I said smoothly, standing up from the mattress.
"If space is what you require, I can do so. But I am a very impatient man who grows bored fast... so don't keep those doors closed for too long."
I tilted my head, letting the molten gold of my left eye burn. It wasn't a request, it was a promise.
I turned and walked toward the door. As I passed the maid still kneeling by the door frame, I leaned in slightly, letting a quiet whisper slip past my lips.
"Finally, you made yourself useful."
I stepped out into the grand hallway, the heavy doors slamming shut behind me under the weight of my mind, with Kiono following silently in my shadow like a ghost.
A sharp, grin spread across my face as we walked down the corridor. The games had only just begun. I finally had a worthy opponent.