by Sariah Skye
My vision blurred, I nodded. “No. Just get it out!”
Finnian looked at Gabriel, who touched the knife gingerly. “This may hurt, Leo. I’m sorry.”
I nodded quickly. I felt a seering fire as the metal blade was swiftly yanked from my hip, and replaced with the green cloth from Maxxus robes; and his strong hands as he applied pressure.
“Step aside!” My grandfather’s face peered over the group, and looked panicked. “Let me heal her!”
Maxxus nodded quickly, and I winced as they exchanged hands, the wound throbbing with pain.
“Why?” I simply askd them, teary eyed. “I just wanted to help!”
Maxxus bit his trembling lip. “I know, Leo. I know.” He glanced at my grandfather, and Gabriel. “Do you have her?”
“Yes.” My grandfather nodded, and Maxxus stood to his feet. What happened next was such a haze I could barely tell what was happening until after all was said and done.
“Lord Kreegan! Answer me—why have you done this? Why have you attempted to kill the queen?” Maxxus voice roared angrily, the ground trembling underneath him. “My mate? My child?”
Kreegan didn’t reply, just stared ahead of him smugly even as the crowd around him tittered and screamed with fury.
Maxxus roared angrily. The walls of the castle shook, and the ground cracked around him as he shifted into his dragon.
Lord Kereck and Lorusto kept their grip tightly on traitorous Kreegan, but ducked out of the way as Maxxus threw his head upward and let out a plume of dirty smoke.
“Get back!” Someone shouted, and I heard the scrambling of footsteps. Finnian and Gabriel parted in front of me just in time for me to see the snapping of Maxxus’ jaws.
With his powerful wings he tossed Lorusto and Kereck aside into the crowd, sending handfuls of court members scattering.
With one swift motion, Maxxus clamped his mouth around the brown dragon’s human form and snapped his massive jaw shut. There was a sickeneing crunch and the scent of iron and flesh before the sound of bones slapped against the stone below.
Kreegan’s disembodied head fell to the ground and rolled a couple of feet, blood spattering and splashing over everyone nearby.
Maxxus had killed him by beheading.
Several quick disturbing moments went by, before Kreegan’s ridged, headless body crumpled to the ground with a sickening thud.
I let out a shriek and cowered into Gabriel’s chest. A pair of arms wrapped around me tightly, I realized the scent to be Daniel’s and Gabriel snuggled his cheek comfortingly against mine.
A female scream rang out from the crowd.
“Stay put!” Maxxus’ voice ordered, even as Kreegan’s mate cried and sobbed. “Your mate has committed treason against the monarchy! Unless you want to be next, you will stay put!”
She whimpered but didn’t move.
Feeling woozy and unsettled, I reached out for the first solid form by me; I think it was Finnian.
“Leo?” he asked, pushing the disheveled hair out of my face. “Are you okay?”
My eye sight flickered and blurred. I wasn’t really in pain, not really, but I was in shock. I couldn’t believe that I just got stabbed.
Stabbed.
Just a couple inches more… Finnian had said.
My heart palpitated and my breath increased as a chill shuddered down my spine.
“Leo, you’re going to be okay,” Gabriel said, nodding intently at me. He turned to my grandfather.
I felt the area on my hip heat and I cried out in pain as the feeling increased and I slumped against Gabriel’s chest as my grandfather tried to heal me.
It must have worked, because the pain that I didn’t fully realize I was feeling subsided, but was replaced by terror.
Maxxus, still in dragon form, ordered everyone out except for Shazandre who was being held by two guards. She cried and sobbed the entire time, her eyes fixated on her mate’s decapitated body.
“Remove this trash!” Maxxus ordered but no one moved.
“What shall we do with it, Majesty?” Lorusto questioned.
Maxxus scoffed. “Burn it. Like garbage.”
My brother stepped forward reluctantly, shifting into his red dragon. With a large exhale, he incinerated Kreegan’s dead body on the floor, just feet away from me until it was notihng more than a pile of ash. Maxxus stomped on the remaining ash until it was impacted with the ground; Shazandre nearby screaming and hollering in despair.
“You! Take her to the dungeon for questioning! If I find this was pre-meditated and she knew about it, she will suffer the same fate!” Maxxus glared and the two guards holding her shuffled her out as she shrieked and protested along the way.
“Are you okay, darling?” Maxxus lowered his head to my line of sight, and Gabriel and my grandfather stepped aside. His blue eyes were worried even through the anger on his face.
I nodded. “It feels better.” I dared to glance at the raw wound on my hip, the fabric of my black pants and tee saturated with blood. I glanced with appreciation at my grandfather who simply stroked my cheek.
“I am so sorry,” Maxxus said, his voice low and quiet. “I should have known.”
“How could you?” I asked.
“If it wasn’t for the sorcerer, he probably would have…” Maxxus swallowed, his words trailing off.
“He let go of me and I managed to push you away; though not nearly fast enough,” Gabriel said, his voice with regret. “If anything happened to you…” He swallowed.
I grasped his hands between mine. “You saved me, Gabe.”
“Let’s get you to bed; send Evie to the chambers,” Maxxus demanded of Finnian, and he obliged.
“I will.”
Normally, I protested being carried around but this time, even with my wings, I allowed Gabriel and Daniel to hoist me on Maxxus’ back and he carried me through the castle halls, past onlookers and gapers and to the bedchambers in the next wing.
I hadn’t even realized I’d fallen asleep until I woke up in our bed, the vampire hovering over me with medical tools and concerned looks.
“How is the baby?” Maxxus asked, his voice normal once more. He had switched back into his human form.
“The knife wasn’t anywhere near the womb as we thought, so that’s good. Everything seems to be fine, except baby is a little quiet,” Evie said.
“Quiet?” I asked, confused.
“Oh, you’re awake. That’s good.” Evie patted my forearm. “I think you had quite a shock. Rest is probably best for now.”
“What about the baby being ‘quiet’. What does that mean?” I demanded, slightly panicked.
Maxxus sat next to me on the bed and pulled my arm into his lap, gently tracing lines on the back of my forearm, avoiding the bandage near the crook of my arm; Evie obviously ran some tests in my sleep. “It just means that baby had a shock, too and he’s taking a nap,” he said calmly.
I breathed a sigh of relief. “That’s all?” I asked the vampire expectantly.
She nodded. “That’s all. I ran tests to make sure nothing sneaky was in that knife—biological or magical—and so far I see nothing. No magic, no sepsis, no infection…it was just a knife.”
“That’s good.” I slowly tried to sit upright, but Maxxus urged me to lay back down.
“Please just rest, Leorah,” he pleaded, his eyes shining with worry.
I sighed in exasperation. I felt fine. “I’m okay.” I glanced down at my hip, pulling the band of my pants down and away; all that remained of the ordeal was a slightly raised, raw, red scar. “It doesn’t hurt or anything.”
“Still…” he protested.
I grumbled. “Seriously, I’m tired of being treated like some fragile flower! I feel fine! ‘Twas only a flesh wound!”
Gabriel snorted an exuberant laugh. “Stop Leorah—just stop!”
I winked at him, glad he got my reference. Maxxus and everyone else just looked upon me like I was on acid.
“Leorah, it is my job to
take care of you. You nearly died! You need to realize that, and rest properly! This isn’t because we think you’re weak—it’s because we are afraid of losing you!” Maxxus argued, his face twisted with frustration.
I sighed, running my free hand through my hair. “Fine. But only for a bit.”
Evie grabbed her trays and a black leather medical bag from the nightstand by me. “I will return in the morning to check on you. Good night, all,” she said to everyone, before leaving the bedroom; Finnian in tow. He’d been silent in contemplation since the assassination attempt on my life, and offered little more than a wave before he left. I barely even noticed he was there.
“So, what now?” I asked Maxxus.
“There is an emergency gathering of the Court in forty-five minutes to determine the innocence of Shazandre. If found guilty, she will be executed as well,” he replied, gritting his teeth. “Frankly, I think it should just be done anyhow, just on principle.”
My mouth fell open in surprise. “Maxx! I don’t like her any more than anyone else, but she at least deserves to be treated fairly.”
Maxxus chortled with exasperation. “Why, Leorah? Where was your fair treatment? How about mine? Ours?” He shook his head. “No. I’m done being fair. The second your life was at risk—all fairness escaped me. I am done. Done!” Maxxus rapped his clenched fist on the nightstand on his side of the bed, leaving a crack in the wood that nearly split the furniture in two.
I felt the frustrating bubbling underneath my skin. “Maxxus…we will not be those leaders. You know, those leaders that unfairly treated Cyril so badly, all those years ago and caused the fucking problem that we have today?”
Maxxus turned away, a low, irritated rumble in the back of his throat.
Gabriel let out a cough. “Well, we should get going…” He pulled on the sleeve of Daniel’s skin-tight, white tee and nodded his head towards the door.
“No!” Maxxus spoke up quickly, as the two edged away. “Please,” he said, more calmly. “Please stay with her, get her to eat. I am going to attend the hearing.”
“Now? You said it wasn’t for another forty-five minutes?” I objected.
“It’s not, but there are other things I wish to discuss with…various people,” he said, remaining vague.
“I want to go too. I should be allowed, since that it was my life that was threatened!” I maintained
“She’s not entirely wrong,” Gabriel dared to speak up, much to the ire of the already-pissed green dragon. “Her showing up would show them how brave she is in the face of danger. I say she should be allowed to go.”
“Allowed?” I let out a high-pitched laugh. “I can do whatever I want!”
Maxxus grumbled, staring down Gabriel and then myself indignantly. He pointed his finger first at Gabriel. “She. Is. Not. Your. Wife! I know you wish she was—” Gabriel opened his mouth to protest but Maxxus stomped towards him menacingly, and the sorcerer backed down. He turned to me next. “—and you aren’t just you. You carry my child too. Our child. I have to act in what is best for both of you, regardless of how you feel!” Like a stormy thundercloud, Maxxus boomed out of the room, the door shutting with forceable magic that shook the walls as he departed.
“Well then.” I said simply, dismayed.
Daniel let out a low whistle. “I’m going to head to the kitchens. See what we can find you to eat; you really should…eat.” He awkwardly pointed towards the door and left, before we could protest.
Gabriel flung himself on the chaise at the foot of the bed and looked at me, befuddled. “What in the hell was that?”
“Daniel needing to eat?” I shrugged, indifferent.
He scoffed. “No! Maxxus being all…alpha male. That just doesn’t sound like him. Or maybe it does and I just don’t know the guy enough.”
I snorted. “Well it is and it isn’t. Green dragons are insanely protective as you know. I guess the baby thing is just sending it into overdrive.”
Gabriel considered this, pushing at the invisible glasses that were no longer on his nose. He didn’t even acknowledge they weren’t there as he raked his hands through his hair. “I suppose…”
I lifted a brow. “Is there something else?”
Gabriel appeared conflicted. “No…he does seem weird though. I can’t place it. But I guess I would be too if my wife had nearly been killed. And my baby,” he sighed, shaking his head.
“Yeah…still, I think I should go to the hearing,” I protested.
Gabriel chuckled. “Well of course. You should go. Just…go. As long as you’re feeling up to it; it concerns you. It’s not like she’ll be able to do anything to you, will she?”
“Well, who would have thought Kreegan would attempt that, in a room full of dragons and other such magic?” I shook my head, bewildered. “Do you think it was the Shadows influence, maybe?”
“It’s a very distinct possibility. Still, Shazandre isn’t Shadowtouched. Bitch or not, I still can’t see her attempting your life again,” Gabriel said, shoving his hands in the pockets of his robes.
“I hope not.” I sat in thoughtful silence, playing the event over in my head, until the point where Maxxus snapped at Gabriel. I stared at him, earnestly. “What was that comment about? ‘I know you wish she were your wife’?”
Gabriel rolled his eyes with a short laugh. “I don’t think he’ll ever get over how we were almost together,” he said, chuckling uncomfortably. “It’s ridiculous. I know you love him—it’s obvious to everyone around the two of you. I couldn’t compete with that, but that’s what I want for myself, in the future. Something like what you two have…without the memory block, of course,” he said with a grin.
“I should hope not,” I said with a snort. “She better like Star Trek though, or else what will you do?”
He smiled playfully. “Well, if she doesn’t I’ll just come watch with you. Deal?”
I nodded in agreement. “Deal!”
Daniel did return with some chicken soup, pitcher of milk, some pretzel rolls and butter and I ate quickly in silence with the boys (well, Gabriel…Daniel wouldn’t touch all that ‘toxicity’ with a ten-foot pole) before forty-five minutes was up, and they came along with me to the library across the castle; which was set up as a temporary, makeshift “courtroom”.
There were no doors to the wide-open room, so I could stand outside with the guards inconspicuously. I had every right to be there, of course, but I didn’t want Maxxus to see me until I’d already been there awhile. In the mood he was in, he was liable to chomp the heads off of literally every dragon in the room, without realizing it.
“Is this like Peoples’ Court or anything?” Daniel jested, peering over my shoulder.
“Milady, would you care to sit down?” Donneghan was the guard who had followed me from the chambers, to the library. He scanned me tentatively with curious eyes.
“I’m fine, Baron,” I replied. He appeared skeptic, so, as unbecoming as it was for a Queen, I pulled aside my robes and lifted my shirt to show him the remainder of the scar. His eyes widened momentarily before he loosed a relieved breath.
“I am glad to see of it,” he said. “Why don’t you just go in?”
I snorted. “The king is a little…heated. It’s best if I stay out of the way.”
Donneghan smirked knowingly. “Ah, yes. Those green dragons. Can’t say I wouldn’t be the same if…well…”
“I know. I’m sure you would.” I gave him an appreciative nod and he took a step back, to give me space and be in a better position to monitor the hallways for wrong-doers.
We focused our eyes back on the proceedings in library; a room with a tall bookshelves and arched-windows with wooden shutters covering them. Dusty tomes rested in the in shelves from floor to ceiling; the only color besides the books was a thick, antique red, gold and brown tapestry, woven in Celtic patterns on the gray stone floor. There were no torches, but white marble pedestals every so often with oil lanterns lit a top them. A circle of chairs, filled with
neutral members of the House and Coterie surrounded one chair in the middle, where an incredibly distraught Shazandre sat, weeping and shaking with fear. Maxxus was in a single chair that faced her; he leaned against the gilded wood arm, resting his head on his hand, contemplatively scratching at the stubble on his cheek; his eyes pierced daggers through the brown dragon. They were so full of angry storms they positively looked black, even from this distance. I flinched in surprise at their appearance.
“Maxxus is…pissed.” Gabriel said simply, his mouth agape.
“Wouldn’t you be?” Daniel hissed in reply.
“Shh!” I put my finger to my lips and hushed them both.
My grandfather, the elder, and hereby judge of the proceedings, commanded the room. He was the only one standing, and he slowly paced between Shazandre and Maxxus while carrying the official Court staff; a tall, ebony rod that curled up and over a clear crystal orb. He struck the bottom of the staff against the stone floor, bringing everyone to attention.
“Shazandre e’na Tuleste. You are hearby charged with the crime of conspiring to assassinate the queen!” He attempted to sound as indifferent as he could, but his voice betrayed him, trembling with the tiniest bit of emotion. “How do you plead?”
“I’m not guilty, Elder!” she pleaded through gasping sobs that wracked her body. “You must believe me, I had no idea my mate was attempting this! Had I known…” She buried her head in her hands and wailing uncontrollably.
Maxxus rolled his eyes and kneaded his forehead with his fingertips. He chuckled shortly, the sound filled with mirth. “How loyal; betrayed in the end. It is good your mate is dead so he cannot see your duplicity.”
My mouth fell open at the cruelness of his words. I narrowed my eyes and nearly stomped into the room to chew him out like an obstinate child, but Gabriel grasped my arm, and shook his head in warning.
Reluctantly, I agreed.
The crowd in the hearing burst into argument, when my grandfather rapped the staff against the floor again, effectively bringing everyone to order. “Enough! Majesty, please…save the judgments for the end of the hearing, if you will.” My grandfather was curt as he spoke to Maxxus.