Forbidden Queens

by C. R. Jane

  Somehow the thought of them being in her life doesn't fill me with the same amount of agony that it did before I saw her like this. I think of how all of our lives would cease to have meaning if she wasn't in it. And then I think of what would possibly feel even worse. What would be worse would be knowing she was out there in the world but not being allowed to be with her…that would be a pain worse than death.

  Telling Eva all of these stories about my adventures with Damon and Beckham has reminded me just how much they're my brothers, my family. Maybe it wouldn't be the worst thing to know you could make your family happy forever. The idea is an epiphany that strangely feels freeing. I realize that I had been experiencing panic over not just the thought of her not picking me, but also what would happen if she did.

  I'm telling Eva all about my thinking on what seems like the hundredth day of me being here, when the roar of thunder drowns out my words. My clothes have stayed perpetually soaked since it seems to never stop raining here. It's almost like the rain is just another defense erected around the prison to keep people out. I start my explanation to Eva again, my voice rasping a bit since I never shut up, when I think I see her eyelid twitch a bit. My story trails off, but it's replaced with me crawling towards the bars of my cell that are closest to her, calling out her name.

  Just when I think it's my imagination born from wishful thinking, I hear a soft groan come out of her, and I see her fingers move on her right hand.

  "Eva," I call out. My heart seems to leap out of my chest when she finally opens those violet tinted, practically crystalline eyes of hers.

  Chapter 18

  Beckham

  I never want to see a fucking raindrop again, pardon my French. It seemed like getting past the glamour meant that the next step was Eva, but that hasn't been the case. This place is a veritable funhouse of supernatural creatures. The distance between where we saw past the glamour, and where the fortress walls actually were, was in fact miles and miles, only appearing close thanks to some kind of magic with a sick sense of humor.

  We've so far faced a whole pack of Jiangshi, which provided us a great deal of fun as you can imagine. After leaving behind their now even deader carcasses, we trudged through the mud, and up slippery rocks until we came to a roaring river. Of course, there we came across some sort ofBanshee type creature who was the keeper of the river. Damon had to actually let the thing kiss him to let us cross. I'm never going to let him live that down.

  There were four pixius just beyond the river. Nasty creatures who have been cursed to continually eat, but never defecate (some rumor about apixiu once violating the decorum of a Chinese emperor by pooping on the floor), they supposedly hold evil spirits and demons inside their belly that they breathe onto unsuspecting passersby. Or at least that's the legend. These pixius seemed to be more interested in eating us rather than breathing demons on us. Lexi, the bleeding heart that she is apparently, couldn't get past the idea of killing such legendary creatures and temporarily turned them into slugs, unable to turn back until after we were long gone.

  After another half dozen run-ins with creatures obviously being used byHim to protect the prison walls, we finally find ourselves standing right outside the walls, grateful for the first time that there's a dense foliage everywhere that allows us to use it for cover as we come up with some kind of game plan. Up till now we had been flying by the seats of our pants and it seems at this point that Eva's, and hopefully Mason's rescue probably require a touch more finesse.

  "Any ideas?" I ask Damon and Lexi as I study the stone walls to see if they would be able to hold our weight if we climbed them. Not for the first time I envy Damon's ability to fly. This would be a piece of cake for him to scale. I'm just about to unhelpfully complain about that fact when Lexi begins doing her seizure thing again. This whole trip she had seemed to be only halfway with us since the other half of her was always trying to press Eva's mind to see if she could get her to wake up from wherever He had trapped her.

  Lexi's shaking is furious this time, and she's gripping her hands so tightly that I can see rivulets of blood streaking from her fingers. Damon and I had learned to let her work by now though and so we both keep guard around her, hoping that this time whatever she is trying will work.

  After what seems like hours, Lexi finally stops shaking, slumping for a moment as she attempts to recover from whatever spell she just cast. She finally sits up, a tired but euphoric look in her eyes as she looks at both of us and tells us what we have been waiting so desperately to hear.

  "She's awake."

  Chapter 19

  Eva

  I open my eyes and am surprised to see that I'm in the prison cell that I had imagined that one day practicing magic with Aiden, except this time I'm aware that I'm the one chained to the wall. I wait for my surroundings to go back to the fight, worrying how Aiden will fare paired with a lunatic partner, but the scenery doesn't change. Everything seems so real. I can feel the wet, moss covered stones under my legs and I realize that I'm dressed in what look like basically scraps of clothing that have been torn and ripped apart. I'm also filthy. I reach out to tentatively touch my hair and find that its matted down with dirt. There's streaks of dirt and cuts all over my legs and arms.

  Unlike the wings of my memory, my beautiful ebony wings lay broken on the ground next to me. When I attempt to move them, I give a cry of pain. They seem to be barely hanging onto my body. I gather them up delicately in my arms and lay them over myself to try and keep me warm. What hell have I found myself in now? Did I never escape the Reverend's house of horrors and I somehow created an alternate reality to distract myself? I had heard of that happening before. People just cracked when their circumstances got too bad and they were trapped in a world that only existed in their brain.

  "Eva," croaks a relieved sounding voice, making the chains attached to my wrists rattle as I jump. My shoulders ache where I've jostled my fragile wings. I try to get my bearings, the dim light of the prison making it difficult to see anything. My eyes finally come into focus and I see a badly beaten up man in the cell next to me. His face is so beaten that it's almost impossible to recognize his features. His hair is long, and hangs in strands just past his shoulders. He's covered in tattoos that are impossible to make out since there's blood and grime coating almost every inch of him.

  Mason. The word comes back to me and with it a rush of other memories come streaming into my brain. Mason, Beckham, Damon, Lexi. Rothmore College. On and on they appear, all streaming back at once like they had been kept somewhere for safekeeping and were just waiting for me. Just like when Aiden gave me that potion that returned some of my memories, or I imagined that Aiden gave me the potion, my brain hurts from the effort required. I moan and hold my head. I faintly hear Mason pulling on his chains in frustration, trying to get to me.

  I'm laying on the floor, tremors passing through my body, a mixture of what I've come to recognize is from extreme hunger and a migraine, when I hear a metal door clanging open. I hear footsteps and then a figure appears. It's Aiden.

  At first, I feel like I've entered a different reality. I can't grasp what my eyes are seeing. The man walking towards me is wearing a smirk that's so familiar to me that I'm having trouble comprehending what it's doing on this man's face. He's a far cry from the Aiden of my memory, and my heart starts praying that this all isn't real. This version of Aiden is more demon than man, or Fae if my dreams are to be believed. The black of his irises cover his entire eye, there's no whites visible. He's much more emaciated than the Aiden of my memories, and his teeth are more shark-like than anything else and give quite the haunting impression. With these changes, I want to believe that this is someone else, but I've come to know that smirk far too well for it to be anyone else. He's dressed in fine clothing that fit too large, like he had shriveled up unexpectedly and hadn't had a chance to get clothes that fit.<
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  Despite his emaciated state, there's a cockiness to his steps that I immediately find distasteful. I can feel the sense of betrayal blossoming in my gut and I heave unexpectedly, bending over the cold, wet, stone floor, unable to retch anything up but air. There's obviously nothing in my stomach as my extreme hunger pains can attest. Looking at the foul looking substances on the stones below me though have me threatening to dry heave again.

  "Princess, is something the matter?" he asks me, mockingly using the same concerned tone that I imagine the other Aiden would have used if he had found me chained to a wall. He's unable to keep the act up for more than a second however when he bursts into mirthful laughter that echoes in the prison I've found myself in.

  "Aiden?" I ask, my words coming out choked as I say them.

  He kneels in front of me. "Tis I," he announces theatrically. "I must admit though, I thought we would be re-acquainted in this world under different circumstances."

  "I don't understand," I whisper, unable to hide the pain that his presence is causing me.

  "Yes, I imagine this all must be very confusing," he says insincerely.

  I hear Mason growl in his cell in response. Aiden throws him a smirk.

  "Hush over there little creature, it's rude to speak out of turn," he tells Mason, who looks like he will throttle him first chance he gets.

  Aiden turns his attention back to me, nonchalantly stroking my face as if its commanstance to lovingly stroke people who you have chained up. He gets a faraway look in his eyes.

  "You know I'll never forget when I first saw you. You were in that garden that you loved, the sun streaming down on your hair as you hummed to yourself. You looked just like an angel, the most beautiful creature that I had ever imagined. I fell instantly in love with you, swore there was no one else in any of the realms who would ever compare.

  I had already cast the spell to start the plague, it was a plan that my family and I had been preparing for hundreds of years. I would have stopped it for you though you know. I would have done anything for you to love me," he laughs bitterly at that thought.

  "You didn't pay me the slightest bit of attention. I was like a curtain on the wall for all you noticed me. You looked right through me, your mind somewhere else when your father introduced me to you. It was like I didn't exist. I followed you that first night after dinner. I saw you with Beckham, someone who wasn't fit to kiss the ground you walked on. I heard you promise him that I was nothing and that he would forever be your one and only. I made a vow that you would one day break your promise, that you would one day belong to me."

  A grin breaks across his face, as if this next part of the story fills him with so much joy that he can't contain it.

  "I made you give him up," he announces proudly. "You walked away from the being who supposedly was your fated lover. I've gotten rid of everyone who had a chance of getting between us, including your mother," he says, as if admitting to killing my mother is simply an afterthought.

  He strokes my face again, and this time I pull away even though the movement causes agonizing pain in my broken wings. I see anger streak across his face at my movement, as if he's somehow entitled to my devotion after all of this.

  "You were the most beautiful bride the worlds have ever seen. Seeing you walk down the aisle, My lovely Queen, my everything....that memory won't ever leave me. In fact…" he says, rage filling his voice, "it haunts me to this day. Every second of every century I've spent searching for you, and my darling you've done a hell of a job of hiding, you've never left my mind for one minute."

  He takes a deep breath and I'm shook realizing the depths of his obsession for me.

  "I thought with time that you would fall for me. Surely as my wife I could finally get your attention."

  He shakes his head and then levies Mason with such a hate filled glare that I shiver even though it's not directed at me.

  "Then you somehow fell for that creature over there, that filthy incubus. You hated your husband so much that you dallied with a creature that's lower than the worms in the ground. The palace slut."

  I gasp as a black whip shoots suddenly from Aiden's outstretched hand and slashes Mason across the face. Mason somehow only grunts as blood starts seeping down his cheek from the large gash that spreads across its entirety. Aiden again looks at me.

  "I thought I fixed that little problem. I thought I fixed all of the little problems that kept threatening our happiness. But I also thought I had uncovered all your little secrets, dug through that miraculous brain of yours and figured you all out. I obviously was wrong since you upended all of my carefully laid plans. You still have more secrets I need to solve."

  Aiden stands up as if he hasn't just dropped a million things on my head at once. I have so many questions, but my mind is still caught on the months I feel like I just lived with him. Getting answers to the questions about the months we just spent together feels more important for some reason than finding answers to the clues he gave me about my past. The life he speaks of still doesn't feel real to me. The mother he claims he killed, the land he says he cursed, the fact that I supposedly knew Beckham and Mason...and maybe even Damon. I feel like I no longer know what is real and what's not real. The lines are all blurred.

  "What did you do to my mind?" I ask, a sob caught in my throat. "Was any of that real?"

  There's a hint of sadness in his gaze and for one second I can see the Aiden that I thought I knew in this monster standing before me.

  "I thought I could have a fresh start with you. Make you my partner without their interference," he says gesturing to the still bleeding Mason who's listening raptly. "Everything that I put in your head was based on real events, just how I wished they had gone instead of how they did go. I didn't lie that I've always loved potions. In fact, I was always referred to in our former life together as the most talented potions master that Fairie had ever had. My talents have only grown over the years. So concocting a potion that allowed me to plant images in your mind, a kind of virtual reality as they call it nowadays, was really no problem."

  I cringe thinking of him rooting around in my head, how much he's already been in my head.

  He crouches in front of me again.

  "We were almost there, weren't we?" he asks softly.

  "I almost had you, but you had to let them interfere," he continues without waiting for my answer, anger once again filling his voice.

  "Let who interfere?" I ask, as ever, so confused.

  "Your bitchy handmaiden, along with the others," he says, motioning to Mason.

  He must see the confusion still written across my features.

  "The snake that went out of control...the crows...the spider...thekaches? Obviously I wouldn't sabotage myself," he says to me, and I feel like such an idiot.

  So many signs that went unnoticed. The empty village, the neverending perfect, unblemished days. The fact that no one would ever talk to me beyond pleasantries or instructions he had given them for me. I should have known something was wrong.

  There's pride in his eyes as he watches me unravel everything. He reaches a hand out to stroke my wing, even that small movement causes intense pain.

  "You're going to burn for me like I've burned for you," he whispers to me, like how you would talk to a lover. "We're just going to have to do this the hard way now. Your surroundings may seem bleak now but you've been kept alive during your time down here. From now on you won't get a drop of food or water until you agree to be mine," he says, suddenly violently pulling a few feathers from my wing. I cry out from the pain.

  "To up the stakes, just because I know you love playing the hero, I'll rip one of your lover's body parts off each day that you don't agree. And then I'll eat it," he says, flashing his sharp teeth as he gives me a huge smile. He then stands up and dusts himself off.

  "Let's begin right now shall we?" he asks, walkin
g towards Mason's cell.

  My confusion has faded into rage. It simmers under my skin, threatening to choke me. My newly discovered magic burns, begging to be released. I'm surprised when I recognize it and realize that Aiden was telling the truth, at least about that. Everything he put in my head was based on real events. Now that Aiden has taught me how to use it I can't believe that I never recognized this feeling before for what it was. Pure power.

  Aiden turns to look at me. I see his eyes widen for a moment as the air seems to be filled with electricity from my growing power. He regains his composure after a second however.

  "I'm afraid that your beautiful powers won't be helpful to you right now my darling," he says, swiping a soft finger down my face. I immediately turn to bite it, surprising both him and myself with my ferocity. My teeth narrowly miss his finger as he yanks them back and growls at me.

  "And why the hell won't my powers work?" I ask disdainfully, the rage pushing away the pathetic betrayal I've felt throughout his whole twisted story.

  I actually kissed this monster! I felt sorry for him thinking that he had spent centuries mourning me and looking for his lost love. I think back to how I trusted him so easily and suddenly I know that it wasn't real, just another way that he violated my brain by making me more open to things. The fact that I didn't have a major freakout the moment I woke up in a strange castle should have been some kind of signal that something was wrong. Of course I guess the fact that he didn't restore my memory of how he turned into some kind of demon when he killed the Reverend and took me from his house didn't exactly help me catch on.