“Izzy darling,” I cooed in a soft, soothing voice as I continued to touch her face, “There’s nothing for you to be frightened of, it is just my guard here to visit me.” I turned and looked back at the window, I saw the guard jump as I stared at him and he went back to his mechanical waving, look almost frightening with the moon low in the sky behind him.
Izzy looked off towards the window and the back at me, her breath was fast as she licked her lips, trying to find the right words.
“Wha-,” She stuttered pathetically, “What does he want?”
I chucked as she continued to stare at the guard. Of course he wanted me, I thought as the touch of my thumb became rougher on her perfect skin. What did she think? That he was here for her? The he somehow got it into his mind to take her for an evening stroll? Did she really think that suddenly everyone in the kingdom now wanted her?
Stupid Bitch
I held down the rage with such vigor I was certain I was deserving of some kind of medal. It took every fiber of my being not to draw my hand back from her face and punch her as hard as I could.
Just remember Eva, I thought to myself, just let her have her moment.
I breathed in deeply and let out a large sigh, trying to keep my composure before I began talking again.
“There really is no reason for you to be afraid, sweetie,” I moved my hand to her head and began stroking her hair. As I caressed her soft locks, it released a powerful perfume of roses that filled the small, musky room. I didn’t remember there being roses in my bath, and I defiantly did not smell good enough to fill the room with my bouquet.
Just let her have her moment. She means nothing.
I lifted myself from the bed, pulled my heavy cloak off of the table and headed out the door, leaving Izzy alone and scared in the darkness of my chambers.
Stupid bitch.
I stepped out into the cold night and the guard grabbed me around the waist and lifter me to his face, kissing me deeply. I almost wanted to push him off of me. I wanted my lips to only be touched by the King, I did not want them compromised by him. Yet, I locked lips with him anyway, reminding myself that I needed him, that he was an essential pawn in my game at this point, and I could not waste him.
He placed me back on the ground and led me off around the castle walls, when he was sure that we were hidden he pushed me up against the hard stone and pulled at my cloak, wanting me to reveal myself to him. I pushed him back as hard as I could and he looked at me with confusion. I lifted my hands to my face and forced false tears into my eyes. I knew what I needed from him, I knew I was going to have to lie, have to keep him wanting me to get what I needed. He grabbed me by my face and stared into my eyes, welled with tears.
“What is wrong, pretty one?” He said, his voice sounding ignorant.
I paused, taking deep breaths, trying to well up more tears in my eyes. He tried to pull me in close and I pushed him away again, almost sending him stumbling to his feet. He looked at me in shock for a moment before I began to talk. I needed him to believe me.
“Guard,” I stared, making my voice tremble slightly, “do you know of the necklace the Queen wears around her neck, the one in the shape of a ball?”
The guard stood before me and looked both ways, keeping on the lookout for anyone who may have been listening to us. When he was sure the coast was clear he looked down at me and nodded, his face still contorted underneath his mask in confusion.
“I need you to bring it to me,” I told him, my voice was stern and cold. I needed him to fear me.
“My darling,” he started reaching out for my hands.
I smacked them away, not wanting to give him an inch of approval before my needs were met. He looked at me in shock and stopped what he was saying.
“I need you to not ask me any questions, I need that necklace and I need it by tomorrow,” I whispered, my voice stretch and hard. I walked towards him and looked up at his face. He towered above me but I knew that I was the one that was in control of him. He wouldn’t dare deny me something I wanted, something I needed. If he was going to hang onto me so, trying to follow me wherever I went, wanting to have my body every single night, I was going to make him work for it.
“If you do not,” I started pointing my finger towards his face, “get me that necklace by tomorrow morning, I will throw myself off of these castle walls or I will run into the woods and let the King brand my face the way he did the mute. Do you understand me?” The guard looked down at me and then to the sides, trying to make his decision when he knew deep down it had already been made for him.
He looked down at me, I swore I could see tears in his eyes as he made up his min.
“Yes,” He said, his voice breaking, “Yes, I will do what you ask of me.”
He knelt to the ground and wrapped his arms around my waist, placing his head on my hip. I stroked his head as I stared off into the distance, the shadow of the mountains danced around the cobblestone, the moon hanging low in the cold night sky.
I wanted my King. I was going to have my King. As soon as I got my hands on the Queens poison I would be his. I would sit next to him on his throne.
The Azure would be mine.
Chapter 6
Izzy
I watched as Eva disappeared through the heavy wooden door. I pulled the blanket to my chest as I watched her and the guards’ black figures disappear into the night.
I pulled the blanket to my face and exhaled deeply into it. I tried to fight back my tears, tried not to cry, tried to hold everything together, but they began to flow down my cheeks effortlessly.
What has happened to my friend? I asked myself in my head. There was something different about her, something had changed, it was like some horrible person I didn’t even know decided to put on her skin. I tried to tell myself that it was all just perhaps her having a bad day, that these things happen. Eva had always been impulsive, that was one of the things I loved about her, was her wild spirit. I had always wished that somehow it would rub off on me, that somehow I could catch a little of her fire.
But not now.
This was not my friend.
I saw the look in her eyes as she caressed my face, the guard watching us through the window. I knew in my heart that there was something different about her. As she stroked my face it had sent chills through my body, her touch was not like the one I had known for so many years; when she had held me though breakups, sad song, heartbreaking movies. I had always felt a level of comfort with her, but not now.
I wanted to run out the door after her, I wanted to grab her and shake her as hard as I could. I wanted to scream in her face, tell her that she was not my friend, that she was better than this, better than that guard better than the Azure. Yet, a sinking feeling in my heart told me to stay in my bed and let her go, off into the night, not knowing what she was getting herself into.
I pulled the blankets further into my face and began to sob deeply, a cry that you only hear at night by abandoned lovers, or those who had lost all hope; in this case I was both.
Oh Eva, I cried into the rough fabric, what have you done? I wished in that moment that I could just burst. I wanted to smash my eternal body, I wanted to supernova right there in the chamber. Yet, all I did was moan into my blanket and talk to the cold, night air.
I lifted my head from the blanket and tried to breathe deeply, attempting feebly to calm my nerves. Breath in, breath out, breath in, breath out, I mumbled out loud. Please calm down, just breath, everything is going to be OK. This thought somehow made me begin to cry even harder and I lifted the blanket to my face and screamed silently into it.
Then suddenly, the room became illuminated with a bright flash of fuchsia light. I slammed myself towards the back of my bed, grabbing at my blankets and pulling them over me, every worry in my mind suddenly leaving me as this purple, swirling flame filled the room.
I felt all of the hair on my body stand on edge, and my muscles became ridged. The light turned from fuchsia, to a dee
p purple, all the while a low hum filled the room, nearly shattering my eardrums. I clenched onto my blanket as the noise made my bed vibrate.
I stared off into the swirling mass, finding myself suddenly not afraid, but transfixed on its beauty. I felt my body being draw towards it, my mind going numb and my limbs becoming weak in its wake. I saw a form begin to appear in the light, taking on the shape of a man, then a cape appearing behind him. He was tall, lean and muscular. The vision looked almost like static until he came into full view. I nearly screamed when I saw who it was.
It was my Prince.
I wanted to hurl myself off of the bed at the sight of his face, I wanted to throw myself into the vortex and let it take me with him, away from this awful place. I threw myself from under the covers and was about to lunge at him when I saw him hold up his hand. I suddenly felt my body become stiff at the edge of the bed. He stood before me with his hand held, my body paralyzed beneath him.
“Isabelle,” He said, his voice soft yet full of power.
“Yes,” I said with what felt like was the last of the breath in my body. My limbs still stiff under his hand.
“You must not come any closer to me, the vortex would shatter your human form if you dared step inside.” He moved closer to me, I could feel the warmth off of the swirling mass, its wind caressing my face.
“Isabelle, you are in great danger, I must come to you only as apparition, for right now it is not meant for me to be in the kingdom.” He leaned in, his beautiful face right next to mine.
I tried with every muscle I had in my body to reach out and touch him, just to caress his beautiful face, to feel his body, but my bones felt as stiff as rocks as he stood before me.
“Isabelle,” he whispered “You must listen to me know, your life is at stake, do you understand me?”
I nodded.
“You must wait for me, do not trust those you love, do not trust anyone in the Azure, I am on my way for you. I will take you when the time is right, but now it is too dangerous for both of us. You must try to live for the next days,” He leaned in closer, his face so close to mine I could feel the heat off of his breath.
“You must Isabelle, be safe, for me, I am on my way.”
A bright flash of light exploded in the room and I was knocked towards the wall with its force. I rubbed my head and stared off into the darkened room, my eyes still hazy from his light.
Normally I would have told myself that this was all an illusion. I would have played it off, saying that I was over tired, or it was some type of dream upon waking.
But this time I knew better.
My Prince had come back; he had not only come back but he had come back for me.
I leaned myself against the wall and stared off into the void where my prince once was.
The smell of burning electrical wire filled the room as I leaned my head against the stone wall and repeated what he had said to me in my mind like a mantra.
“Do not trust those you love.”
“In great danger.”
“Too dangerous for us both.”
“I’m on my way.”
Book 5: Final Sunset
Chapter 1
I sat there in the darkness of my room, stars still dancing before my eyes as I watched the bright light fade and my prince dissipate like a vapor.
"Coming to get me?" I said to the darkness, questioning what he was saying.
The moon shined through the window sending cascading shadows throughout the small room. It took a few moments for my eyes to adjust to the dark, and for my mind to process what had just happened.
I tried to tell myself that it had all been an illusion or a hallucination, maybe my mind was breaking, maybe after all of this, I was starting to lose whatever small grasp I still had on reality, if that what I could even call this; reality. Ever since I had stepped on the plane all of this had just seemed like some bad fever dream from which there was no waking.
I closed and opened my eyes hard, thinking like perhaps this may have been a dream and if I blinked hard enough I would wake from my slumber and find myself still on the moving aircraft. I blink and blinked, until I felt the tears begin to well up in my eyes.
This was no dream; this was now my reality. I reached my hand out into the darkness wanting to feel the space that he had just occupied. I recoiled my hand back, remembering the words that my prince had just said to me “The vortex would shatter your human frame if you were to step in,” I paused for a moment, trying to take heed to his warning, but I couldn’t help myself. I slowly lifted my shaking hand and caressed the air in from of me trying to touch where he had just been, caressing the dense space as if I could reach into the vortex and pull him out.
The space where he had just been felt warm on my skin, and left an uncomfortable tingling sensation on my fingertips, as if electricity were shooting out of my nails. I recoiled my hand and held it to my chest, it felt hot on my cold flesh.
I tried to think, I tried to make sense of what had just happened, tried to make sense of any of this. My mind would only draw blanks.
With my mind racing I tried to transfix my mind on the noises outside of my room. I could hear the slow walk of boot heels on the cobble stone through the cracked window, the distant whinny of a horse from the stables, the low grumble of the guard’s strange language as they spoke to one another in a hushed tone, the sound of the wind ripping though the courtyard, and the everlasting, shattering silence that seemed to constantly permeate the entire landscape of the Azure. Each one of these noises were amplified, their edges sharp, making me want to jump out of my skin.
I held my hands to my face and rubbed my cheeks, I covered my nose and mouth and breathed into my palms; they still smelled of fresh roses from my bath that afternoon. I inhaled the dense fragrance, somehow a familiar sent from earth soothed my nerves, making me feel more grounded.
I leaned back against my hard pillows and pulled the blankets over me, their rough fabric raking against my skin.
I tried to understand what it was the prince was talking about. Not safe? I thought to myself. I know that it had been a rough day for both Eva and I, but I definitely didn't feel like I was in any real danger, it had almost felt like any other move I had done in my life, or any new job I had started; it just felt uncomfortable and strange. Eva’s attitude had been off, there was a change in her demeanor, in the way that she carried herself. Her voice seemed to have changed, it no longer had its nature joking tone of my clownish best friend. Even when she had tried to sooth me on the bed earlier that evening there was a darkness in her voice, it sounded fake and condescending, that was not my Eva. What about the way the talked about the slave girl? It dawned on me in that moment that it really had been Eva who had struck her, throwing her poor, frail body to the ground. I had not seen any other girls around here all day, and especially not any wearing the boots she was. I felt my heart sink into the pit of my stomach as this all dawned on me. In all my life I had never seen her hurt a fly, let alone a human woman. She was always the one to come up rooting for the underdog, was the one defending the less fortunate. What had happened to her? what had they done to her?“Oh, Eva,” I whimpered as I felt the hot tears begin to stream down my face, “Oh Eva, please no,” I whispered, my voice trembling as the tears rushed down my cheek and onto my neck.
I took three deep breaths and tried to regain control of my emotions. I would talk to Eva when she got back from her date with the guard. We would sort all of this out, the way we always had. Our friendship was never so weak that we were not able to talk to one another, we just need to have an open dialogue and then everything would clear up, I just knew it. I pulled the blankets to my face and wiped away the salty tears. The blanket smelled old and musty, like a mixture of horse hair and gunpowder.
I closed my eyes and tried to rest my mind. Whatever my prince had been trying to tell me would have to wait until morning, there was nothing I could do but take his advice and just play it safe for the time being. I
had to learn how to be weary of my surrounding and these now creatures, I didn’t know what they may have been plotting when I wasn’t looking. I thought it was odd that the King had taken such a liking to me right off the bat, perhaps he had other plans for me in mind than I had imagined. I needed to heed my princes warning. I needed to not trust the ones I loved. I needed to not trust Eva. I shifted my concentration again to the noises outside. I needed to rest for the night if I was going to take thing on, head first in the morning. I listened to the chatter of the courtyard and the wind that swept through it. I felt the moonlight dancing over my face and felt the warmth from the fireplace drifting underneath my blankets. I let my mind drift off and I began to fall into a state of half sleep, my natural instincts not wanting me to fall completely unconscious. I watched on the lids of my eyes as my mind began to play a reel show of the noises that I was hearing; I saw the guards walking through the courtyard in the vast shadow of the castle in bright moonlight, the spectacular white horses that the King kept, the shuttering of the trees as the wind ripped through them.
I saw Eva.
It looked as though she were trying to talk to me, her voice was low and solemn, and sounded conniving, it sounded like she was making a plan. In my mind I saw her, standing in the darkness and talking to herself, but she did not look like Eva, her face looked sunken and her eyes were dark. Her hair was filthy and her skin was so pale I could see her veins though it. She was wearing her dark cloak and had the hood pulled over her eyes. She looked demonic, she looked evil. She spoke into the darkness and a long smile spread across her face, her teeth were jagged and yellow. She then turned her head and looked at me smiling, I felt the familiar sensation of absolute dread as she looked at me, she had transformed into someone I didn’t even know. She stood there, just smiling at me, standing completely still. I tried to speak out in my dream but when I tried I found all of my words lost in my throat, as if they were almost choking me. I struggled as I tried to jet them out, it was like they were lodged in my esophagus. I felt myself chocking. I tried to force myself awake, I felt myself being smothered, I tried to wake but my body wouldn’t let me, I tried to will my mind into consciousness. I was going to die if I couldn’t wake up. I looked at Eva and tried to cry out for help, I pointed at my throat and tried to run to her but my legs were made of stone.
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