Her cold, beating heart

Chapter 4: Consequences and rewards

Taking another step forward, the queen replies “I can easily kill you, Esme, you know this. It is you who shouldn't want to do this. Why are you doing this?”

“It is my duty to protect you and…” She drops her head slightly to the side, her eyes moving towards where I lay, before Swiftly diverting her gaze back to the queen. “Even if that is from yourself.”

“So be it, just remember, you asked for this.” With that, the Queen lunges forward. It's hard to see what's happening as they are moving so fast, but Esme dodges the queen's attack, only to be thrown across the room into a wall with a deafening thud.

Her attention now turns to me. Her eyes are still blazing red as she advances on me, a cruel, twisted smile on her face. She grabs me by the hair and drags me to the door as I thrash in her hold. “I’ll allow Lucian his reward first, and then maybe I'll suck you dry. Shame, your blood was delectable.”

My blood turns cold, like ice flowing through my veins. For the first time in weeks, I feel real fear seeping into my bones.

“No, get off of me. I'm sorry for whatever I did. Just stop!” I'm thrown to the floor as we exit the room, I land awkwardly on my arm, pain shooting through my wrist. At first, I thought i was thrown by the queen. But as I turn, I see that Esme has tackled her to the ground, and I was just collateral damage.

“Ros, you can't. For the love of God, look at her. Look her in the eye. You know who she is. You know what the gold means. You can't do this, please.” Esme screams as she struggles to keep the queen on the ground. But the queen looks too far gone to be reasoned with, she easily pushes Esme off of her and stands, clearly done with this tussle.

“Guards, take your commander to the cells. She has attacked your queen. I will decide her fate later.” The guards hesitate, looking at their commander. One pointed look later from the queen, and the commander is being escorted to the cells as ordered.

The queen grabs me by my arm and drags me up. She grabs the arm I landed on, causing me to yelp. This, in turn, causes her to finally look at me. Her red eyes quickly change from fiery red to gold as her angry face shifts to a slightly softer expression, my fear starting to relent. As fast as it appeared, it's gone, eyes flaming red again and looking angrier than before. The fear returningd to me tenfold at the look in her eye.

She drags me down the halls easily until we come to a stop. I’d put up little to no fight, not that it would make a difference either way. Even if there were 2 of me, she'd be stronger. She stops in front of a heavy oak door and turns to me for a second, her brows furrow as she knocks on the door.

I hear shuffling on the other side before the door is swung open, and the stench of blood and alcohol hits me all at once. The smell is overpowering. It takes everything in me not to heave.

Before me stands a relatively short man, at least in comparison to the queen. He stands at 5ft 10, perhaps. He has messy, dirty blonde hair that keeps falling into his eyes, causing him to constantly push it out of his face. His chin sports stubble, although it doesn't look purposeful, more someone who needs to shave but hasn't yet gotten round to it. His blue checked shirt is clean, and sleeves rolled up to his elbows, showing tattoos filling both arms. He's very muscular, but something tells me that the slight frame of the queen could kill him without breaking a sweat.

I'm broken out of my thoughts as the queen addresses the man.

“Lucian, there you are. I have brought you a reward.” I watch the confused expression on Lucians face morph into one of excitement as he lays his eyes on me. I'm doing my damndest to make no sound and show no fear, I know it won't help me here. But, my body betrays me as it begins trembling. This seems to please the man in front of me as his grin widens.

“I'd like this one back, Lucian. Please, try not to play too rough. I'd like her to be returned in one piece. And alive Lucian.” She says, shooting me a disgusted look.

“Yes, my queen. She'll be alive.” With that, I'm thrust into Lucian as I hear the Queen heels beginning to retreat from the door. For some stupid reason, all of the way here, I expected her to change her mind. Even now, I'm holding onto the hope that she turns around and collects me, tells me that should I ever disobey her again, or she will follow through with this threat. With each passing second, that glimmering hope diminishes, until it's all but gone, disappearing completely when Lucian throws me on his bed, a dirty smirk plastered on his face as he scans my body hungrily. I can't believe she's going to let this happen to me, I think.

I don't know what I did to deserve this, I don't know what I said, hell, I haven't spoken to her for a month, I've had no time to say anything.
How did she manage to convince me that she wouldn't harm me, that I was safe with her, without her even saying a word? My body and mind just won't let me believe that she’ll follow through with this, even now, as this man starts removing his clothing in front of me, it's still telling me that she’ll save me.

But I know better, don't I?