Calamity Falls | Wattys 2019

XLIV

"Will somebody tell me what on earth is going on?" Calamity shouted to the two men standing in front of the door, almost as if they were protecting the captive in the cell from her. Her foot tapped anxiously on the concrete floor.

"Calamity please just calm down. I need to advise that you don't kill the prisoner behind this door," Reinard spoke up.

A scoff came from inside the cell. "I'm not a prisoner I came here willingly, and I could easily leave if I wanted."

Why did that voice sound familiar? Calamity felt an odd surge of emotion. "Who is that?" Her voice was husky from irritation. She shoved past the two men blocking the door before swinging it open a little harder than necessary.

The figure was shrouded in black, completely unrecognizable in the dark cell. Calamity illuminated the candles around the room with a simple flick of her wrist. She glared at the man before her. He stood with only two enchanted links on his wrists. If she didn't know any better she would think they were just ugly bracelets.

The man could now see Calamity as well. His eyes held a strange kind of awe. "You have grown so beautiful, Callie."

Calamity snapped. She lunged at the buffoon before her. "How dare you?" She screamed. She barely got three hits in before Leopold pried her off of the man now lying on the floor. "I'll kill you! How dare you come back? You abandoned me!"

The man stood cautiously, wiping blood off his lip with a slight smirk on his face. "You've gotten stronger too."

"Let go of me Leopold!" Her anger transferred to the man preventing her from killing the traitor in front of her.

"Calamity calm down! Your veins are black again!" She thrashed in his hold for a couple more seconds before settling. Her black, hate-filled eyes never left the mystery man. "What is going on?" He looked around the room at the people that had yet to explain what was happening.

Instead of receiving a response he got a question from the man his mate tried to attack. "Who are you?" The man glared at Leopold.

"That's none of your business. I'm not the one in question right now." Leopold raised an eyebrow at the idiot before him.

The man simply ignored him. "You're King Leopold, aren't you?" The silence gave him his answer. It was his turn to be mad. "You're the man that's been harassing Callie!"

"Don't call me that!" She tried to lunge at him again, but Leopold's arms didn't loosen a bit.

"She is my mate." He bit out through clenched teeth. "I love her, and she loves me. I am not harassing anyone. Now tell me. Who are you?" His patience was wearing thin. He was about ready to let Calamity go and have her way with him.

The man simply smirked. "She hasn't told you? My name is Phoenix. I am Calamity's dearest older brother."

Leopold's shock allowed Calamity to break out of his arms and run to slap Phoenix across his face. She went for another one, but he caught her hand.

"You are not my brother anymore. You lost that privilege when you abandoned me alone with that monster. Everything you had to go through passed down to me tenfold. He couldn't afford to make another mistake. After you left I became the Crown Princess of the dark realm. I suffered through everything because of you," Calamity seethed in his face. "I still have the scars to prove it."

Complete and utter horror crossed Phoenix's face. "I thought that you would have been safe because you were a girl. Didn't Uncle Ron interfere?"

A disturbingly calm sort of rage filled Calamity. She ripped her hand out of her brother's grasp. "Ron is dead."

Grief entered Phoenix's expression. "How could I have missed so much?" His shoulders slumped in guilt.

"You missed so much because you left." Calamity turned and stormed out of the room. Sable called after her, and Reinard chased after both of them.

Leopold looked at the man with the crestfallen expression. "You have no idea what she has gone through. She wasn't allowed to have anyone to confide in either. She couldn't have any friends, and the only family that actually ever cared left one way or the other. She was all alone for so long. I won't let you hurt her again. She has endured enough." Leopold finally followed after his mate, leaving Phoenix there to wallow alone in self-pity.

~~~

"No, I will not calm down! That ignorant prick left me all alone to deal with our horrible father, and now he has the audacity to come back?" Calamity shouted at Leopold.

He grabbed her face quickly. She relaxed slightly against her will. Stupid mate bond. "You are not alone anymore, Calamity. You have me now. You have Reinard. You have Sable... again." He chuckled lightly. "I love you." His hand ran the length of her face gently, taking her anger with it.

Her eyes softened. "I love you, too, turtle. I'm sorry that I'm acting so insufferable." She closed her eyes, focusing on her breathing.

Leo moved his hands from her face to the small of her back, pressing her flush against him. He earned a small smile in response. He leaned down and kissed her gently. "I think it's time that we went to bed."

Calamity groaned, wiping her hands along her face in exasperation. "I have more paper work to do. Plus, I'm going to have to fill out conflict-of-interest forms if Phoenix has done something to actually earn jail time. You go to bed though. I'll join you soon enough. I don't want you to wait for me."

Leopold frowned. "You didn't get very much sleep last night, my dove. You must be exhausted. You should go to bed too."

Calamity shook her head. "I'm fine. I have trained myself to be able to go up to two weeks without sleep, while remaining high-functioning."

Leopold scrutinized her. "That... is not healthy. I don't think I want to know why you can do that, but I still know that you shouldn't. You can do the paperwork tomorrow morning."

Calamity pursed her lips. "I'm just going to do it quickly. I'm fine, Leo. Go to bed."

His frown didn't dissipate. "You have half an hour, or I'm dragging you to bed."

Calamity laughed heartily. "Okay." She kissed him slowly.

When they parted Leo felt suddenly tired. He yawned loudly. "Thirty minutes."

She watched him walk off to bed knowing that he would not be awake in thirty minutes. She had to get her work done, and it would take longer than thirty minutes. She had discreetly taken enough energy to make him fall asleep very quickly without him catching on to the fact that she had taken his energy.

Calamity sat at her desk to begin another long night's work. She would be lucky if she got into bed before daylight broke. She sighed, sorry that she had tricked her mate into falling asleep before he could collect her.

She listened to the slowing beat of his heart while she worked. His heartbeat became steady, signifying that Leopold had fallen asleep.