My King of Darkness (Maven x OC)

Chapter 21

Lydia

             The pale early morning sun blinded me as I pulled open the curtains. I squinted into my coffee, waiting for my eyes to adjust. The hands grasping the mug were almost completely consumed in the sleeves of Mavens button-down.
               I could feel a pair of eyes on me. I looked over my shoulder, the bedroom suddenly very dark compared to the daylight outside. I could make out Maven, however, in the bed, one arm slung behind his head, eyeing me, chewing his breakfast thoughtfully.
            "What?" I asked.
            "Nothing, you're just...perfect," he smiled.
            I blushed and his grin grew bigger. Perfect? I stood there in my underwear, shin-high socks and his shirt, hair tousled, drowning myself in coffee. And the king was calling me perfect.
             I set my mug on the bedside table and laid out next to him, head on his chest and took my share of breakfast. When he was finished, Maven slid out from beneath me and started getting dressed. While he shuffled around the room, I strolled along the wall, studying the rest of the room. I had only been in here a handful of times and the furnishing hadn't exactly had my attention then.
              But now, my eyes caught a wide wooden piece of furniture along the far wall. There was a bench pulled up to it. A piano? I had seen one in the ballroom on Mavens birthday and at the theater, giving music to the play. I knew the sounds that came out of it, but I had never been this close and I had no idea how one worked. I touched the black and white grooves. They seemed to be buttons. I pressed one and jumped back as a sound came out.
               Laughter sounded from a few feet away, and I realized Maven had been watching me. I blushed hard, but he was smiling at me like he had been in the bed.
                 "Here," he sat on the bench and touched his hands to the buttons. I watched as his long slender fingers danced across the buttons. A melody, a song came out as I stared. Maven jumped several times as he hit a wrong note, "Sorry." But I was fascinated all the same.
               Finally, he stopped, setting his hands in his lap, "I'm a little rusty. I was never that good in the first place. Cals the musical one."
               I shook my head, "I think you're wonderful."
               I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him on the cheek. It was warm in his embarrassment.
               I sat cross-legged on the bed, watching Maven get ready, entertaining myself with all his eccentricities. He picked out his clothes while brushing his teeth, he parted his dark hair like he was defusing a bomb, and hummed while he buttoned his coat. And last but not least, he smoothed our every single wrinkle and arranged every stray lock of hair.
              Maven bent over me and kissed me, "See you later?"
              "Definitely."
              After he left, I lingered around his room for over an hour, trying my hand at the piano, looking through the drawers in his chest, reading my Edgar Allen Poe stories. As I finally stood to put on my clothes and go home, I heard a commotion rolling down the hall toward me. To my horror, it stopped on the other side of the door, which banged open.
               There stood Charlotte, panting and wide-eyed, "Lyd—"
               Two Sentinels burst in behind her, seizing her. Before they could spot me, I morphed into Yvonne and pulled Charlotte from them, putting myself between her and them. "Leave her," I demanded, in my best "Silver voice."
                "But, His Majesty—"
                "Will have your head if he hears you defied his fiancé!"
                They hurriedly bowed at this and backed away. I closed the door behind them and morphed back into myself, "Charlotte, what were you thinking, coming here?"
                 She looked me up and down. I was still half-naked and wearing Mavens shirt, not to mention the way I just behaved. But she didn't comment, instead breathing, "It's Ben."

                  We walked together through the streets of Archeon in silence towards Ben's apartment. My heart was pounding harder and harder. Charlotte kept giving me nervous glances, but refused to tell me anything no matter how many times I asked. She rapped on the door when we reached the apartment.
                  Jacob answered, "Lydia?" he said. His voice was twinged with exhaustion, my name like an afterthought he forced out.
                 There was movement behind him and he stepped aside. Ben's wife, Josephine appeared, a halo of our other friends hovering around her as if she would collapse at any moment and in fact she looked like she may. She beckoned me into the dark apartment, but threw herself on me as soon as I stepped inside, sobbing.
                   "Jo, what happened?" I asked, gently guiding her to the couch.
                     "Ben...he was closing up the speakeasy...last night...and—" she couldn't finish.
                     Several minutes passed filled with nothing but Josephine's sobs and futile attempts to speak. The door to the bedroom opened and a man stepped out, a doctor. Everyone's eyes glued to him. "He's stabilized," he announced, seeing he had an audience, "He should pull through."
                     Everyone else breathed a collective sigh of relief but I jumped up, "Stabilized?! Pull through?! Let me see him!"
                     The doctor held the door as Charlotte finally ushered me in. The bedroom was as dark as the rest of the apartment, but the stench was noticeably worse. A figure lay in the bed.
                     "Ben?"
                     "H-Hey, Lydia, where've you been? You d-didn't show up for your shift yesterday,"
                     "It's a long story," I said, stepping closer. I stifled a gasp as I made out his features.
                     Ben was barely recognizable. One eye was swollen shut, half of his face was purple, and his hair was damp, presumably leftover blood from a head wound. "I'm a bit unsightly, I know. But I've been through worse," he chuckled.
                     "No, Ben, you haven't," Charlotte said, straight-faced. She told me, "Concussion. Doc said some internal bleeding too, and..."
                      She faded out as Ben began to shift in the bed. He extracted one arm from under the covers. It had been severed halfway to his elbow. I cried out, throwing my hands to my mouth.
                      "It's okay, Lydia. I'll get through this," he said, but he winced with pain as he set the arm back down.
                      "What happened?!" I demanded, "Who did this to you?! Not Silvers?"
                      "No, Reds. One of those street gangs. They broke into the pub, robbed us dry, ruined my handsome face,"
                      I tried to laugh. I tried to laugh at all the jokes. I told him about my run-in with the Scarlet Guard, which he found more entertaining than anything, but he also tried to give me some wise-old-man advice about causing trouble.
                    But Ben was like a big brother to me. The speakeasy was doing so well, I knew he and Josephine were talking about kids and getting a bigger place. Was all of this derailed because some thugs wanted to line their pockets? Were we just going to sit and do nothing?
                        "I want justice too, Lyd," Jacob said when I mentioned it to him, "but Ben said there were six maybe seven guys. The two of us can't fight them ourselves, even with your ability. And we don't even know how to find them."
                         An idea hit me that moment, a twisted, dark idea, but an idea, "But I know someone who can."
         
                         I threw open the door to Mavens study, morphing back into myself. He sat at his desk, writing by the light of a single lamp. He almost looked sane, but I knew better. "Lydia, hey, what's your opinion on—What's wrong?"
                         Tear stains streaked my cheeks and I was panting. Maven jumped up and came to me, and to my satisfaction I saw the flames ignite in his blue eyes.
                         "Maven, I need you to do something for me."