The Kingdoms of Blue and Green.

Part 57

Azrael's knuckles grew a flesh white as he grasped onto the bars of the cell. The cold tinge of metal on his palms convulsed his stomach. A scrapping noise echoed across the cell making him flinch and take a shuddering breath in. The figure sat hunched over the ripped bed, knuckles wrapped over the rotting frame. Azrael's skin crawled and shivered as Marcus and Aiden fiddled with the metal keys, rattling the cell bars as Marcus shoved the key into the hole and twisted it violently before throwing the cell door open, letting a crack ripple through the prison. Aiden's silver eyes slid to Azrael's the sea of metallic displaying a sliver of sympathy, before recuperating and walking into the cell Marcus close behind.

The shadows strewed the figure hunched over the bed. The candle-lit cell providing a dangerous amount of silence and darkness that the mind could eagerly set the imagination alight, creating vivid creatures and playing with the hearing, the mind mimicking the sound of scratching or tapping.

The shadows lingered around the man before Marcus and Aiden's figures wrapped their arms around the man, forcing him up and shoving him forward until the cold tinge of metal burnt his face. Placed between the bars Azrael raised the candle to them, illuminating the man's face, the wrinkled and dry creature he wasn't sure was completely human, the dried blood and bruised skin, splotches of purples and pinks clouded the sides of his cheeks and his left eye. The dried blood cracked over his top lip. As they pressed him into the metal bars the man's bloodshot eyes with a soft ring of brown echoed a question Azrael didn't want to be answered.

"You know why you're here?" Azrael neared his face to the bars, making the man shudder and refuse to meet his eye. Aiden pressed his hands straight into the man's shoulders making him wince in pain and meet Azrael's eyes. The candle near them provided only an outline of the crown on his head, but the man knew who he was. The presence of a king is not commonly mistaken. "You know the punishments for disrespecting a court member," Azrael spoke, a snake on his tongue.

The man spat on the ground, narrowly missing Azrael's shoes. Immediately he got his head slammed into the bars causing a string of curses and the sound of rattling metal to fill the room. "You know the punishments for disrespecting her highness," Azrael slipped his hand between the bars and gripped onto the man's white straw-like hair, pulling it tightly and placing his bruised cheek onto the metal. "Disrespecting her," Azrael spoke but couldn't string the remaining words on his tongue.

"What if I told you she's an imposter?" The man laughed showing his bloody smile and squinted eyes. "What if I told you that Evelynn-"

"Do not mention her NAME-"

Azrael pushed the man back before grabbing his collar and forcing him forward, his head hitting the bars. His skin broke apart onto the contact metal forcing the blood to spill down the bars. Azrael's smile glinted holding the cold bars to his skin.

"She's Athrolilan," The man's smile reappeared, "I drove her here after all." The bloody smile splinters in Azrael's skin. "She's here to kill you."

"No,"

"Oh, yes" the words cackled in a high shrill.

                                                                                           ~

The green swayed over the marble, gently brushing and licking the tiles near her feet. The hilt of her sword stroked the back of her spine, eager for its arrival at his neck. Evelynn walked with Audria unable to meet her eye. Her blonde ringlets were braided and passion twisted into a bun on the centre of her head. Jewels and gems crowded her scalp, as the long chain of gold wrapped around her hair. Audria glanced at Evelynn but quickly looked away, lowering her gaze to her dress. Audria crooked her head as she swore that she'd seen that dress before. The intricate flower embroiders and snatched green waste with the soft fabrics protruding out of the waist.