The Darke King

A Monster

The racing beats of her heart echoed in Daniel's brain, and he could even feel her fingernails digging into her palms. Rosemary tried to control the rage building inside her. Still, the king could sense the anger barreling toward him before he heard her feet pounding against the stone floor outside the throne room.

He sighed before peeking up at Agamori, and he motioned toward the door with his head. "You should probably leave now. Apparently, someone has spilled last night's news to your sister, and she's on her way to discuss it with me vigorously."

A sympathetic smirk rose on the old warlock's lips as he tipped his head and backed away with his hands up. "Good luck."

While a red-faced Rosemary ran past him, Agamori bowed his head and pulled the doors closed behind him. She gasped and panted through her teary eyes and shaking head. "What did you do? Please tell me it isn't true. You didn't really kill someone, did you?"

His shoulder shrugged just a little as he rolled the corner of the map and continued winding it up on itself. "It is true. I killed that man in front of everyone. I had to."

She inched around the table and grabbed his sleeve up into her fingers. "Oh, Daniel, why? How could you do something like that? He was a guest here."

He twisted his lips and dropped the map before turning to her and sliding his hands up her arms. She's a creature born to heal, and she would never understand his way of thinking, no matter how he tried to explain it. "I don't enjoy seeing what I do or knowing what I know, Rosemary. That man said and thought horrible things about you. I promised you once that would never happen again, and I mean to keep that promise."

Her eyes wove shut as she pressed her hand to her forehead. "You killed a man because you didn't like what he said about me?"

His knees dipped to face her, and he brought their noses together. "He called you a whore. Called our daughter..." Rolling his teary eyes away, Daniel shook his head. "I will kill every man if I have to, but no one will ever speak those words again. Not in my home. Not where my wife and child lay down their heads to sleep."

"Oh." Her little shaking hands pushed him away, and she covered her mouth to stop the sickness rising in her stomach. "Don't you dare say that you did this in my or Siggy's honor. Don't you cheapen us like that."

Backing away, she pointed her finger at him. "You didn't do it for anyone but yourself. You did it because you wanted to. Because it felt good."

A chuckle came from his cheeky smile before he could even stop it, and he crossed his arms. "That's true. It felt good, and I'd do it all over again if given a chance."

With his pointer finger in the air, Daniel wagged it back and forth as he lifted his chin to the door. "This is my kingdom." His hand slapped at his chest as he moved toward her. "Mine. My word is the law here, and he broke the law. So, he suffered the consequences."

The window he backed her against spilled a red light over his dark eyes, and for a moment, she saw the beast that dwelled within him. "This isn't you." She sniffed back her tears, and a whimper came from her quivering lips. "This isn't who you are. Not the man who rocks our baby at night. Not the one who held me in the darkness through my screams. I don't know who you are."

The instant she tried to roll away from him, he blocked her between his arms as he pressed her into the windowsill. "Yes, it is Rosemary." With thick disappointment, his tongue clicked as he pushed her tears from her cheeks and shook his head. "I told you who I am. It's not my fault you didn't believe me or that you can't remember."

Little jerks of her chest beat against him, and her head fell between them as tears dripped to the floor. "I don't want this."

With his thumbs wrapped under her jaw, Daniel lifted her face in his hands and kissed her forehead. "I'd do nothing to hurt you, Rosemary. Never. But don't think for a moment you're going to tell me how to run my fucking kingdom or to take care of what belongs to me. Do you understand me?"

Through her clenched jaw and gritted teeth, she hissed at the hatefulness of whatever being possessed the man she loved. "Get your hands off of me, you monster."

Her tears dripped from his palms as he uncurled his fingers from her face and stepped away. "Monster?"

His nose wrinkled as he sniffed the insult away and glanced out the window at his subjects going about their business in the town below. As he accepted his fate, his eyes rose to the ceiling. His duty. "Alright. If it's a monster that you want, so be it."

The icy blue eyes that never failed to pierce his heart narrowed at him, and her chin slid back and forth. "What's happening to you?" Her skirt crinkled under her fingers as she pulled at the sides and hurried through the room only to have the doors slam shut after her, making her squeal and clutch at her chest.

***

The sky lit up outside the window, and the rain beat against the side of the castle, driving the Earthy smell of dirt and wood through the sad, stale room.

The soft sounds of her daughter's whimpers barely poked through the booming thunder. Still, they woke Rosemary from her not very restful sleep, anyway. The sheets beside her were cold as she slid her hand across them, and the pain of it surged through her fingers to her throat, knowing Daniel hadn't been there all night.

Every word between the two of them repeatedly played in her mind, and she wiped her cheeks, then pushed herself to the side of the bed.

The little things that she never thought of, like feeding the fire before going to sleep, became painfully clear as she rubbed her hands together and stuffed her feet into her slippers.

She slid her arms into her robe and pulled her hair free before kneeling in front of the fireplace and throwing another log onto the fire. Wiping off her hands as she came to the nursery, she found Sigrid already sitting up in her crib with glassy eyes and a pouty frown. "Awe, my sweet girl. You must be freezing."

Sigrid lifted her hips into the air and kicked her feet as her mother changed her. "You're used to your father waking you each morning. Aren't you?" Rosemary curled her lips and nodded. "Yes, I miss him too." She tucked in the corners of the diaper, then pulled down her gown and kissed the bottom of her foot. "We'll go visit him. I'm certain he would love that."

Slumping down into the rocking chair, Rosemary peeked at the princess feeding as the light poked through the colorful window panes. When the sounds of hooves marching against the cobblestone road leading away from the castle got her attention, the sadness rained from Rosemary's eyes to her chest.

Every time he left for a raid, she was taken back to the day he stumbled into the city with arrows buried deep in him. It filled her with the worst kind of fear and guilt, thinking that each time would be the last. "I love you, Daniel. Come back soon."