The Sword and the Scythe

Chapter 24: Killer Queen

A wave of emotion crashed over her even though she tried to stifle it. Damn him. She pulled the shirt up to her nose and took a deep breath. It still smelled his like his detergent and cigarettes. Tears stung her eyes and she batted them away, unable to decipher them. Damn him, she thought again, but with less conviction. She shrugged the shirt on and headed out for the library on the other end of the property.

Along the way, she couldn't help eyeing the tall guarded walls of the property. They might have been beautiful, ivy-covered fences, but that didn't quell the prison feeling in her gut. Those walls and guards were serious overkill to just keep wayward tourists off the grounds.

Under a tree outside the library she saw what appeared to be two teenagers laying on a quilt. She knew they had to at least be older than Leroy but reconciling that with their sixteen-year-old appearances was difficult. They looked like two normal teenagers enjoying the summer day. The girl wore a cotton print tank top with white-washed jean shorts. The dark-haired boy had on blue cotton shorts and a white t-shirt that made his tanned skin glow. Their dark Grim cloaks had been set aside in the green grass. Charlotte hadn't seen anyone in the compound but her going without one—she wondered if that was even allowed.

The boy looked up at her as if he sensed her gaze. She looked away guiltily at having been caught and quickened her pace to the doors of the library.

"Wait!" she heard the sing-song voice of the girl call after her. She scrambled off the blanket and caught Charlotte with her hand around the handle of the door. "You're the human girl they brought in, right?"

Charlotte blinked a little in shock. "Yes."

"News travels fast—we almost never see new faces around here." The girl stuck her olive-toned hand out. "My name is Juliet."

"Charlotte," she replied, shaking the girl's hand.

Juliet gestured over her shoulder to the boy on the blanket. "That's my husband, Romeo." He raised his hand in a wave.

"Um... The Romeo and Juliet?"

Juliet smiled a patient smile that made Charlotte guess she got this question more frequently than she'd like. "Yes, sadly, the very same."

"Sadly? Things seemed to work out pretty well for you. Eternity to spend with your true love? Most people would kill for that."

Juliet turned and went to sit back down, and Charlotte followed her. "We may still be together, but our after-lives have not been easy. I never got to see my family alive again. If had it all to do over again, I would not make the same mistake."

Charlotte was surprised that she'd say this in front of her husband—that she regretted marrying him all those years ago. But he seemed to agree, taking her hand in his and giving it a loving squeeze before kissing it and letting it drop.

"We were not in love then, not really," Romeo said, his voice just as honey-toned and deep as she would have expected of him. "Lust and infatuation got the better of us. Falling in love came later—after we were both dead with nothing but time to get to know each other."

"Would you do it all over again?" she asked him, interested to know if his answer would differ from his wife's.

He shook his head immediately. "We have been through too much suffering in the last seven hundred years that no bright spot in our existence can outweigh."

"What kind of suffering?" Charlotte asked before she realized this was a rude thing to ask someone she'd just met.

The couple shared a look before Juliet leaned toward Charlotte and uttered in a hushed tone, "Things here are not what they appear to be."