Wildfire

Twenty Five

Even though I cannot make either one of them out clearly I cannot help but clench my eyes shut with a fierceness as the tension grows between my fiance and his father, King Xiang seeming even crueler in person than the rumors I had heard about him. 

The more he speaks the more the temperature of the water seems to increase, a hissing noise coming from where it continues to lap against Emry's figure as he shields me from his Father's eyes, his anger radiating off of him in waves as King Xiang insults both me and my family, "Father! Unless you have a vested interest in becoming a smoldering pile of ash I suggest you take your leave."

"Oh, calm yourself. It was but a jab... Well natured and all that. I'll leave, but I must insist that you at least join us for the other meals today. Rayne...need not come... Actually I think maybe he should stay tucked away in your rooms until-" King Xiang's words hurt me, and it becomes clearer and clearer that he indeed was the one to lock me out of the palace and cause the tension between my family and I to grow... He had been the one to cruelly have my name left off of every invitation that demanded the rest of my family's presence here in what I was hoping would now be my happy new home now that Emrys has chosen me as his bride... With every word, he speaks my heart sinks lower and lower, a future of being shut away in a locked room in shame slowly starting to form in my mind... Until Emrys cuts him off with a voice so steely and cold it nearly makes my own heart stop with the fear it produces. 

"We both know it was not a jab. Rayne is the future Queen of this palace and will have full reign of it now and always and shall go wherever he pleases, your permission for that is not required nor appreciated. I have already warned you..." I know I should not be afraid of the man who has taken such tender care of me all of last night and this morning, but when he starts to drift away from me in the pool I cannot help but feel the tiniest bit of relief to have him away from me with the rage he's emitting causing the water around him to start to boil, the heat of him suffocating as he moves towards his Father with much menace, "Take. Your. Leave."

...

Emrys

...

I had not expected my Father to push his limits quite so much as he is doing now, the urge I have to turn him into nothing more than ash one that has me quickening my pace just as he realizes that it would be wise of him to backtrack and try to escape me. 

I catch him though, just as he's turning to try and escape me quicker than he's able to simply retracing his steps backward, my nails sharpened halfway to talons when they sink through his robes and into his shoulder, a hiss of pain all I get in response before I find myself dragging him around the corner of the doorway so that I might pin the coward against the wall, one of my forearms being pressed so tightly against his neck that he struggles to draw breath, all the better to heed my warnings, "You shall not speak to him that way ever again... Do you understand me, Old Man? If you so much as look at him, I shall split your belly open and burn you from the inside out with flame so hot not even the blessing hidden in your worthless skin will allow the sad shell of the King you should have been in this lifetime will be able to withstand it. Are. We. Clear?"

My Father's face is nearly purple by the time I am finished, and he is just barely able to nod in understanding, not capable of drawing enough breath at the moment to properly speak. The moment he confirms that he understands I pull my arm away from him, stepping back just far enough to drop it and draw my arm back, the blow to his ribs intentional, the cracking of bone under my fist more satisfying than it probably should be as I smirk over his gasps, my only explanation before walking away from the pathetic creature that once was a great man being, "So that you might build character, Father. It's something you desperately need."

Being his only son and heir to his throne I know he shall not retaliate... Not with his own Queen returned to the Earth so long ago, my own place on the throne now secure with Rayne by my side, my crowning happening in exactly one fortnight from today. 

...

Rayne

...

Whatever skirmish that has happened is a nearly silent one as I shiver still stuck in the pool up to my chin in the water though I have moved my body under the small waterfall, the side of me worse off from my beating pressing into the hot rocks in a way that is not at all comfortable as I try and hide as best I can without being able to find my own way out of the water. 

As I listen trying to figure out whether or not my feelings of being unsafe with Emrys who knows how far away from me, my person left unguarded I hear the water of the pool be broken as someone enters it with me, whether it is my fiance or someone else remains unknown even when they grow closer and I feel a pair of hands fall upon me to fish me out of my apparently indiscreet hiding place... That is until a soft kiss is pressed upon the top of my head, the hold on my shoulders being surrendered as he wraps his arms around me, Emrys's way of announcing that he is back by my side in order to protect me. 

"Y-You left me!" I cannot help but let the words tumble out of my mouth as the tears I had been trying so desperately to hold back lest my fearful sobs be heard and I be spotted finally rolling down my cheeks as I turn in his hold in order to better latch on to his person. 

"I had you in my line of sight the entire time, My Love... I just needed to assure that he would not ever be so cruel to you again and that he properly takes his leave instead of lingering to ambush us when we try to dress... You may not have felt me by your side, but I promise you I never left it... I'll never leave you unprotected, Rayne... Not after last night... Not ever..."