Into the Azure: A Fantasy Bad Boy Romance

by Kylie Silverstone

  She could have drunk the poison herself before turning in for the night, not wanting to live in this dimension with the Azurians.

  She could fall off of a stool.

  Or drown.

  Or choke.

  There’s a lot of horrible things that can happen to a girl.

  Chapter 2

  I sat in the utter silence of the room thinking about the day we had; first off with her valiant effort to try to protect the mutant slave girl. What business was it of hers what I did with my slaves? She had no idea what I had been putting up with from that pitiful mute. The way her stiff hands struggled to do even the simplest of tasks I asked her to do. How she trembled whenever anyone merely spoke to her.The way she never made the water quite hot enough to clean my linen. The way she nearly dropped every plate she ever picked up, making her virtually useless in the kitchen, the list went on.

  But today I had told her, as nicely as I could, that I needed the two new linen dresses the guard had given me hemmed just slightly near the ankle. Not the hardest task in the world, I had also told her that I needed it done by the next morning and to leave the, folded neatly, on the spare bed in my quarters.

  When I was done serving the King and Queen their breakfast that morning, I saw as the Queen had motioned towards me and whispered something into my Kings ear. He nodded his head as she furrowed her brows and sipped the bitter tea I had been serving her.

  She reclined back into her hard wooden chair and removed to poisonous orb from her neck, looking at it and then, at me. I began to grow anxious under her stare as I rushed to the Kings side to pour him more tea. I saw the Queen give him a sideward glance as my shaking hand tried to pour the foul smelling liquid into his cup.The King glanced back at her before turning to me and asked why I was wearing my ragged cloths, and why I was not wearing the new dresses that the guard had given me. I knew he was going to notice, and I had known the Queen had noticed, the way she stared at me up and down with a slight grin on her monstrous face. I knew in her mind she had been mocking me.

  “Well sir,” I began as I held the hot, silver pitcher that was hot in my shaking hands, almost burning my soft skin in my hands, “They were beautiful as always, and I am grateful for you allowing the guard to gift me with such fine linens.”

  The queen scoffed loudly as she crossed her bony legs and turned towards the window.

  “But you see,” I continued, my hands shaking with rage as I stared at the Queen out of the corner of my eye, “They were just a hair too long around the legs, so I gave it to the mute girl last night to take in for me. I wouldn’t want such fine clothing dragging on the ground and getting dirty, my King.”

  The king paused as he took a sip of his tea and looked over at the queen, who nodded at him, her eyes dancing at what was to come next. He dabbed his mouth with a napkin and then turned to me.

  “Well, my dear, then where are your dresses now if you gave them to her last night?” He lifted his hand and dropped it on the table, making their cups shake, his tone was harsh and annoyed. He stared into my eyes looking for an explanation.

  I looked at the queen, I could tell that she was egging him on, trying to get him to humiliate me. He looked back and forth at her, waiting for her approval.

  “You have given her the entire night and she still had not finished them?” His voice was becoming louder and I began to shake.

  Well, I um-,” I stammered, clenching the silver pitcher tight in my shaking hands.

  He looked back at the queen as I tried to find the right words. She looked back at him, raising her eyebrows, telling him to go further, that she was not pleased yet, that I needed further punishment before she was satisfied.

  “I-I-I,” The words simply would not come out of my mouth, it was as if someone had poured cement down my throat.

  I saw the king become red in the face as he lifted his massive hand and slammed it down on the table, sending a crystal vase of roses flying to the floor, smashing everywhere.

  I jumped back almost spilling the pitcher of tea all over myself.

  “SILENCE!” The king bellowed, his voice bouncing off the walls and making my ears ring.

  He paused for a moment and stared into my eyes, his breathing was heavy, his hands clenched into tight fists. He stared at me as if her were ready to kill me, I trembled in fear.

  “Who are you?” He whispered.

  I paused for a moment, not know if I should reply or wait for him to tell me who I was.

  “You,” he started, I breathed a deep sigh of relief for not having to answer his question. “You are the Head Slave Mistress, is that right?” He leaned back in his large wooden and crossed his legs, waiting for my response.

  “Y-Yes,” I croaked.

  “Well then, would you mind explaining to me why your subornments have failed to meet you demands? Did I not place you, and you solely in charge and they are ignoring your requests?”

  He looked back over at the queen who continued to gaze out the window, I believed she was satisfied with his torture for the moment.

  “Perhaps I misjudged you,” he said, looking to the floor and shaking his head in disappointment, “perhaps you are not a leader, perhaps you are not the one I should have placed in charge of my slaves.” He leaned forward, picked up his mug and sipped at his tea gently, almost lady-like in his mannerisms. He reclined back into his chair and dabbed at his damp lip with a fine napkin.

  He stared off at the wall for a moment, before shaking his head and rubbing at his eyes. His obvious displeasure was enough to make me want to run screaming from the room, made me want to hide before the Queen nodded at him again.

  He sighed and looked back at me, “How can I expect things to run smoothly in my kingdom if even your own girls will not listen to you, will not complete even the simplest of tasks without you having to hunt them down, how can my Queen and I trust you when you seem to have zero control over those whom are below you?”

  I gripped the hot sides of the pitcher at a loss for words, I tried to think of something. Blame it on the girl, I thought to myself. Make her pay for this, not you, you are above them Eva, act like it.

  “Well I- “My voice quivered, trying to come up with some excuse.

  Before I could get my words out of my mouth, the King grabbed me by the skirt of my dress, pulling me towards him and almost knocking the pitcher out of my hands. Lifting my skirt to his face, he squinted his eyes and stared at the black fabric of my linen dress, examining it, rolling his finger over it while cocking his head, he made me feel as if I were just a bug under his boot, something that needed to be exterminated quickly.

  My heart pounded as he looked over my clothes, scared of what was to come next. In one swift movement he reached his massive arm up and grabbed me by the back of my hair, almost ripping it out of my skull. He pulled my head hard to the piece of my skirt that he held in his paws, send the pitcher to the ground and dropping me to my knees. His hands shook as he held me there, shoving my face into the linen.

  “Do you see this?” He shouted in my ear making it ring like a bell, his heavy hands making my head shake under his massive grip.

  I stared down at the linen and noticed a small hole in the fabric. I remembered that the guard had been stacking wood in my fireplace the day before and had sent an ember flying onto my dress, making a cigarette sized hole in the heavy fabric. I had scolded him severely, almost to the point where I thought he was going to leave my chambers in an embarrassed rage. But, like the fool he was, all he did was bow at my knee, kissing my legs and apologizing profusely. It was pitiful to see creature of his magnitude bow down before a mere human as myself. But that is just what he was; pitiful.

  “WELL DO YOU?!” The king boomed, almost shoving my face into the rough fabric.

  I raced through my mind, trying to come up with the right words to say. My eyes focusing on just that small hole in my dress, wondering if this was just to be my demise, and it was all because of that incompetent guard.

>   “I-I, the guard,” I stammered, sound what the mutant slave girl would have sounded like if she could have ever built up the courage to speak.

  The king threw his hand, tossing me to the hard stone floor. I laid on the ground for what seemed like an eternity, my dress becoming soaked with the spilt tea. I tried to decide if I should raise my head or not when I felt him grab a fist full of my hair again, almost lifting me off of the cold floor. He pulled my face to his and stared at me directly in my eyes, his pupils enlarged with rage.

  I glanced over his shoulder and looked at the Queen. She sat there staring at me, her fingers folded together and her face laying on her knuckles, the hideous smile plastered across her wicked face as it always was whenever the King decided to give me a shakedown at her command. Her dead, grey eyes were alive with wonder as the king held me in his grip, nearly tearing the hair from my skull.

  For a moment I saw the king nearly stammer over his words, he glanced back at her, looking for approval. She took the pewter cup of tea she had been sipping on and grabbed for her scepter that sat by her side at all times. She rose from the table and glided across the floor hauntingly, as if she were a ghost. She approached the King slowly, then entire time staring at me, her long ivory teeth glistening like polished knives. She reached down and touch the King ever so gently on the shoulder, smoothing her gnarled, pale finger over his leather suit. He bended at her waist and took his head in her hand. She pushed away the tangled locks of his dirty blond hair and leaning into him, kissing him ever so gently on his soft lips.

  The King closed his eyes and seemed to savor her taste. His grip loosened on the back of my skull as he became transfixed by her touch, her spell being cast upon him.

  She parted from his lips as he stared at her deep in her eyes, captivated by her. She pulled herself back up, I gazed upon her as she towed over my small, quivering body.

  “It’s time for my bath, darling, I will be in my wash room,” She cooed, her voice about as pleasant as nails on a chalkboard.

  The King nodded, still staring at her, as if her was awaiting further instructions as to what to do with me next.

  The Queen glided across the floor, the tails of her long leather gown floating across the floor. She slowly opened the large wooden door before turning to the King and I. She gazed at him sweetly, then looked down upon me and lifted one of her long, black eyebrows, as if she was examining me. She tilted her head, still staring at me, her gaze feeling like fire throughout my body. She tapped her scepter on the stone floor, her wicked face full of thought. She let out a deep sigh before lifting her eyes off of me and placing them again on the King.

  “Darling,” She said in nearly a whisper.

  The King nearly jumped at the sound of her voice. He repositioned his hand on my head, grasping my hair tighter, obviously trying to please her, trying to put on a show for her by displaying his dominance over me.

  “Yes dear?” He croaked, his voice was eager, if I didn’t know my King so well I would have said that he almost sounded scared of her.

  She looked down at me and shook her head, then looked back at the King.

  “Do with her what you please, my love. She must learn her place in the Azure, and that she is not to be serving her masters in filthy clothing, if I were having a worse day I would call that a crime almost punishable by death itself. But today, my dear, I am feeling rather kind, so we shall just reprimand her for her wrong doings and leave it at that.”

  The King quickly nodded his head up and down as she spoke to him. He was taking note of her every demand. I shuddered thinking that my life did in fact lie in the clutches of this witch, this demon. What were I to have done if she were having a bad day? Would they take me out side and shoot me like a rabid animal in the streets? Would I drink of the Queens poison, something I’m sure she would love to see, me choking to death on my last words, her horrible, twisted face hovering above mine in my final moments. Or would the king just simply take my head in his massive paw and snap my neck like a twig? I trembled thinking about it as he tightened his grip on the back of my head and continued to nod his head, eagerly awaiting further instructions from the wicked Queen.

  She looked down at me, her figure still massive in the large doorway. Her crooked smile grew larger, and my impending sense of doom grew stronger as she gazed upon me.

  “We wouldn’t want to have yet another mutant, mute, slave running around our kingdom, now would we?” She spoke as she stared me down.

  “NO!-No, my love, I believe one is quite enough for this Kingdom!” The King exclaimed, his voice sounding desperate and cheap.

  The Queen nodded at him lovingly. It was all I could do to keep from screaming, all I could do from just letting the King rip a hunk of my hair out if I tried to make a run at her. Yet, I hung my head and staid still, I would never want to disobey the King like that. He had been too kind to me.

  She turned her back and lifted her head before gliding out the door and closing it with a slam behind her. I felt the pressure of a thousand years get lifted off of my bony shoulder as she exited the room. I could have sworn the air almost felt lighter when she walked out.

  Chapter 3

  The King grunted and again threw me to the floor, my pitiful figure small and shaking on the cold stone. He rose from his chair and began furiously pacing around the room, his footsteps shaking the plates and cups on the table. His cape flapped behind him as her stroked his chin, his cold, grey eyes dancing around the room in confusion. I laid there with my head to the floor, only look at him out of the corner of my eye, afraid to make contact with him.

  What was he thinking? What was he going to do? Did his queen want me dead? Of course she did, I thought, of course she wants you dead you foolish girl, why would you ever think any differently of that wicked creature. She had seen the way the King had looked at me upon my first arrival to the kingdom, the way his eyes danced across my body as he dried me from my bath. I was her sole competitor and she would have liked nothing more than to see my severed heat on the castle walls.

  I leaned my head against the stone floor and began to cry silently, sure that my king was about to end my short life in the Azure. For a place that held so much beauty, more magic than any land my mind could have ever conceived on its own, it sure was a cold and harsh world.

  I felt the tears begin to stream down my face effortlessly. They rolled down my neck and dropped against the floor. I looked up at the King, hoping that he would notice the pitiful look on my face, hope that maybe he would feel something for this poor slave girl, hoping that he would not brand me with a hop iron and then banish me from his existence. I don’t think I ever could have dealt with having to be out of his arms reach, the mere thought of it simply sickened me.

  The King paused and gazed out the window. The sun was shining and I could see the rolling hills of the Azure through the window. The distant shout of the guards floated through the open window, the brief neigh of the horses filled the room. I clenched at my ragged linen, trying to regain control of myself as the king walked up to the window and closed it with a slam. The room became suddenly silent and he walked to my feet. He stared down at me as if he were contemplating my whole existence. My body felt limp under his massive feet, his boots just at my nose so I could smell their sweet leather.

  “You’re going to be a problem, you know that,” He said in a deep tone, tapping his foot and raising his hands to his waist.

  He knelt down to the floor and sat on his knees by my side. He took his hands and cupped the around my tear stained face, bring my head up to meet his. I look deep into his eyes, looking for an answer as to what he was going to do next. His gloved hands were warm on my skin, his touch comforting and not rough. He was always rough with me when his Queen was around, as if abusing me in front of her made him feel bigger and stronger. As if he had anything to prove to that vile woman.

  He held my head tighter as he searched over my face. He moved his fingers under my eyes to wipe away the tea
rs that were now flowing freely down my cheeks. I could tell by the look in his eyes that he had felt bad for the way he had just treated me. I could tell that he was just putting on a show for the foul woman, but his rough touch still made me weep.

  I grasped for his leather cape and began to cry even harder that I had before, grasping onto him like a lost child. He brought up his arms and drew me in to his embrace. His arms were warm and comforting. I buried my face into the leather of his uniform and let out a deep sigh of relief. I should have known that my King never would have hurt me unless she was around. He pulled me in closer and I dug my hands into his back, scratching at the smooth surface of his cloth as I breathed him in deeply, almost trying to inhale him all together. He pushed me back for a moment and picked up the hem of my dress again, examining the small hole. He rubbed his thumbs around it and furrowed his brow.

  “My guard, he takes care of you, does he not?” He asked, his face almost full of concern

  I nodded my head, my voice not allowing for me to even make a peep.

  He stared back down at my garment and slowly began shaking his head. I could tell now that it was not me he was angry with, but my poor excuse for a guard. I breathed a silent sigh of relief knowing that my King was not angry with me.

  “He has not been doing his job then,” he said, dropping my garment to the floor.

  He lifted his hand to the table and picked up a fine napkin and wiped his hands off on it, as if I was something dirty he had just touched. He then reached over to my face and wiped away the residual tears that were still soaking my face. He caressed every portion of my head before he threw the cloth to the ground. He reached out his arms and took his hands in mine, pulling me to my feel. I felt woozy upon standing and steadied myself against his firm body, scared that I was about to fall over. The King wrapped his arms around me, helping me stay on my feet. I felt the sudden rush of elation rush over my body as I held him close to me. I let my knees grow weak from under me hoping that he would hold me closer to him, hold me tighter, all I had wanted was to be in my Kings arms.