The King's Queen

Chapter 11

Garrett Stone
Age: 30

Violet O'Conner
Age: 26

*°*

The world was bathed in red. It was enchanting, ethereal; almost beautiful to the point of being painful. All around me was ash and fire. My eyes stung and my throat burned with a pungent chemical taste, longing for a reprieve; for a breath of clean, fresh air. I allowed my eyes to wander and my gaze trailed along the battle-worn terrain. Where was this place? Surely it couldn't be Crysauralia, the famed capital of the empire of gold.

Ashton! Where was Ashton? Had we gotten separated again? I sank to the ground in disbelief, not caring that I was sitting upon a throne of cinders. This was no enchanting fairytale. This was a waking nightmare.

*°*

"Elizabeth?"

Ashton's drowsy voice pulled me out of the dream I was having. My heart was racing and it felt like a century had gone by since I'd last closed my eyes. I looked over to my right where Ashton was propped up on his elbow and looking at me.

"You're crying," he murmured and brought his thumb up to brush a tear away.

I sniffed, sitting up and trying to calm my frantic heartbeat. What was that? I knew that it had been a dream that had gotten me so worked up, but I could not remember the details. It was already nothing more than a vague memory.

"Bad dream," I sighed, resting my head in the crook of his neck. "Did I wake you?"

"Don't worry about it," he whispered, running his hand down my hair. I nodded and leaned off him, my brows furrowed at the confusion my dream had left me feeling. Or perhaps it was nightmare.

"You kept mumbling my name," he explained. "What were you dreaming about?"

"You're the one who told me to dream about you," I joked. "No wonder I had a nightmare."

He chuckled at my teasing. "I suppose your dream was so scary you were calling for me to be with you," he mused. "If you'd stayed asleep a bit longer, I would have come to rescue you quite valiantly."

"You should come rescue me immediately," I protested. "What kind of prince shows up late?"

"The hero is always fashionably late," he countered.

"Why thank you, my tardy prince. What would I ever do without you?"

"I sense sarcasm." He laughed. He looked at me and is eyes overflowed with tenderness. "From now on, have only good dreams. I want you to always be happy."

*°*

Throughout the day, I kept wondering what my dream had been about. Was it a side effect of the headaches or perhaps something else entirely? I shook my head. I was probably thinking about this too much. It could have just been a bad dream. Yeah, that was all it was; nothing more than a bad dream that my mind had already forgotten.

After breakfast with the royals, I had a short lesson with Madame Lucille and it ended without incident. I felt like I was getting better at the whole royalty thing. But I knew that I shouldn't allow myself to get complacent. Most of the things I knew were theory based. There was going to come a time when I'd have to put them all into practice and that was easier said than done. Still, I was trying my best. I would become an empress worthy of her title. Anything less was unacceptable to me.

By afternoon, my lessons were all finished and I had a few hours before a meeting with the imperial family. The Prinarch and Prin weren't simply here for vacation. They also had matters of business to deal with-one of them being my marriage to Ashton. I loved Ashton so sometimes I forgot that our marriage was practically arranged for diplomatic and political gain. To me, it no longer felt like an arranged marriage and I wouldn't have it any other way.