A/N: I own nothing but plot. Enjoy!
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"Annabeth!" Percy yelled.
It must have only been a couple of seconds, but to Percy, it seemed like his time had stopped. He roughly pushed the maid aside and held his wife in his arms. The knife had sunk half into her shoulder, staining the light blue dress red.
"No...no," Percy muttered. "This can't be..."
He had a fleeting memory of when they had first met, when he had watched the light drain from her eyes after the attack from Kiran.
Damn it, why was she here in the first place when he told her to stay back?
"I-I'm fine..." The queen murmured.
"The hell you are!" Percy yelled angrily.
Her face had turned ashen with her lips pale. Where the knife had ripped into her clothes, the skin had turned a faint shade of green-blue.
Poison. Such an evil move would not have harmed him much except to make him sick.
His eyes flashed red as he looked up. If it were not for his knights who had already pinned Ceto down, he would have cut her head off right then and there.
"I'm glad you're okay at least," the queen whispered. Her eyes closed.
"Your Majesty, we must get the queen help!" Lady Piper pleaded.
Reason flooded Percy's mind. He gathered the queen in his arms. Her body felt so light despite having enough force to throw him out of the way.
"Call for the royal physicians quickly, but do not slip why." Percy caught sight of the maid held hostage who was trying to quietly slip away. "And detain that maid in the dungeons."
The maid looked alarmed. She was clearly a victim who had her throat nearly slashed, so why would they take her in custody? The knights paid no attention to her desperate pleading and dragged her away.
But to Percy, the maid's movements were as clear as day. Ceto had certainly pushed the maid out of the way. However, it was the maid who "stumbled" and threw herself into Percy's way, delaying him by a few precious seconds that now caused the queen to be injured.
"You'll be okay," Percy muttered. "You have to be."
"Are...are you hurt?"
Sweat beads were beginning to dot her forehead. Percy glanced down, worriedly.
"Are you seriously asking if I'm the one hurt? Worry about yourself first!"
Those striking grey eyes were now dull as her eyelids closed.
"I'm glad that I made it in time." She whispered.
Percy grit his teeth.
The queen was laid on a bed in Gardenia Palace. Despite the physicians working to clear her injury, Percy stayed by her side throughout. By now, the poison was working through the queen's system and she lapsed through the borders of consciousness and unconsciousness.
The knife was carefully extracted. Even in unconsciousness, Percy could see the pain and sweat dripping from the queen's pale face. After removal of the knife, the wound still looked terrifying with the edges a discolored red from poison.
"Your Majesty," the royal physician implored.
Percy could only step back and let the doctors do their job. He stepped out of the room where Lady Piper, Lucy, and a few other guards were kneeling in fear. The concern on the king's face had all but turned into barely controlled fury. Should one fault be found, the people kneeling on the ground would have their heads fly off.
"Explain." He spat. "The queen was to remain behind. Why is my queen here to get hurt?"
Lady Piper bowed her head even lower. Even if she was potentially the soon-to-be crown princess of Tynan, the queen's lady-in-waiting was still a citizen of Eldoris first. At this moment, Percy didn't get a flying fuck about what political ramifications could occur.
"Your Majesty. It is this one's fault for not acting sooner."
The green eyes that looked down on her pierced into Lady Piper's fear. She could only lower her head and continue with her hasty explanation.
"The queen was worried for Your Majesty and sent me to use my powers to help dispel the situation. We had just arrived when the queen suddenly rushed past me and... I...I didn't notice that she was following behind me. I am ashamed."
Percy's furious eyes turned to Lucy and Sir Nico.
They quickly prostrated themselves on the floor as well.
"Your Majesty. Please forgive us. The queen...she was so quick that I couldn't stop her in time."
Percy closed his eyes and swallowed in his anger. He himself didn't know why he was so furious. In truth, Percy wasn't half as mad at the courtiers in front of him as he was at himself for putting the queen in danger. Ceto should have been watched more carefully. He thought that she was just a foolish girl but who knew when she became such a dangerous bomb.
"That's enough." Percy said. "You will all be punished by having your salaries deducted."
Everyone let out a silent breath. With the king's expression, they were sure they were about to lose a limb each. Having their salary deducted was just a slap on the wrist.
Percy turned back into the room as soon as the physicians were done healing the queen. Though the knife wound looked deep, it was all smoke and no fire. If the queen didn't move around too much and took care, she wouldn't even have a scar. Because her body was still somewhat weak, the poison would take a few days to work out of her system. The queen would be in bed to sleep for a while. Percy was not reassured by their words that the queen would recover in a few days.
He sat down by the bed, watching the queen sleep. Taking out the knife had been painful, so the physicians had given the queen some pain-relieving medicine.
"You fool," he whispered. "Why did you take that knife for me?"
When Percy realized the knife had hit Annabeth instead, he felt like his whole world had gone awry. The guilt was crushing him inside. There was the matter of the horse-poisoning incident not too long ago and now this. It was his second life and yet why couldn't he still protect those he cared about.
He bit the inside of his cheek until the metallic tang of blood was on his tongue.
Percy just couldn't understand why the queen would push herself in front of him. Bringing Lady Piper whose magic could be used to deescalate the situation would have been enough. Even if they hadn't arrived in time, a knife wound was nothing to him, who had survived countless battles. It was an illogical move by a woman who thrives on logic and reasoning. What could have possessed her to do such a thing?
As for himself, why was he feeling these emotions he couldn't explain?
His hand reached to stroke the side of the queen's face. She was warm, a fixture of light and softness he hadn't realized became a stable and central part of his life. As king, he wasn't allowed to have weaknesses. It was his responsibility as king of Eldoris. But she was willing to jump in danger to save him, to share his burden. This was something he had never asked of her, and something he had never expected from anyone. His life had been so short that every day was thinking of survival, not to grow old with someone by his side.
And if he were to lose her...
Percy felt the bitter feeling rise in his throat. Placing her in the closest spot meant she could be protected. But it was also the most dangerous for her, as well as the most vulnerable weakness he could have.
"I love you," Percy whispered. "So, please don't get injured again. It's all my fault for not being able to protect you enough. Please be okay..."
He laid a gentle kiss on her pale forehead.
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Dowager Queen Amphitrite clicked her tongue in frustration hearing that the king had not perished in the attack of the foolish Lady Ceto. Even worse was that there seemed to be no information coming out from her spies in Gardenia and Dalia Palaces. Her stepson must have tightened security even more. It was hard for anyone except the king and queen's inner circles to see the rulers' faces.
Amphitrite bit her lip. The palace was carrying on as usual. Were it not for Triton saying that he had seen the king of Eldoris moving fine, Amphitrite would not have believed that the assassination plan had not worked. Still, the physicians were called for a couple times to Gardenia Palace. It was not the king who had gotten hurt. Someone else? Could it be that the queen was...
"Mother?" Triton asked. His gentle face was full of concern. "I don't think there's anything suspicious going on."
Amphitrite frowned in impatience at her too soft son. It was precisely that the palace was acting fairly normal that she felt something suspicious was occurring.
It was a pity that even the maid she sent out to unleash Ceto in the palace did not answer back. Was it possible that the king detected even the maid? At least, Amphitrite had used another subordinate to find the maid's weakness and hire her to be an accomplice in the attack. Thus, the maid would never know that it was the dowager queen behind the scenes.
Still, it irked Amphitrite to not know of any information.
Amphitrite was just about to prepare tea for Triton when the doors to her private quarters burst open. Royal knights bearing the crest of Eldoris swarmed the room. Triton was alarmed, looking at all the tough knights with their swords drawn.
"What in the name of hell is going on?" Amphitrite demanded, her teacup smashing to the ground. "How dare you enter my chambers without permission? Do you not value your head to be on your shoulders any more?"
She recognized the head knight, Sir Grover, as he stepped forward.
"My apologies, Your Ladyship."
Not one fault could be detected from the knight's bearing or tone, but Amphitrite was certain her bastard stepson's personal knight was mocking her.
"We are here to arrest criminals. We ask for your cooperation." Sir Grover explained. His tone suggested there was no room for argument.
"Criminals?" Triton asked, worriedly.
"Arrest criminals? Hah!" Amphitrite spat. "The only criminal I see here is you and those forsaken knights. And this gives you permission to invade my palace?"
Sir Grover remained steadfast. "It is on the orders of His Majesty, the king. He was worried that Your Ladyship would be influenced by the criminals and sent us speedily to protect Your Ladyship and His Highness, Prince Triton."
By now, the royal knights had found who they were searching for. Amphitrite let out a little scream of frustration as two ladies-in-waiting and three stewards were dragged out.
"How dare you!" She screamed. "Guards, stop them!"
But a few of her own knights were being knocked out and chained like prisoners. The rest of her own knights had long been incapacitated by the surprise entering of the royal Eldoris knights.
Amphitrite glared with hatred and fury. "And for what crime are they being charged?"
"Your Ladyship, the people are being charged with embezzlement of your funds to import dangerous drugs. The accounts have been checked thoroughly, do rest assured." Sir Grover said gravely.
The dowager queen suddenly had a flashback to the money she had squirreled away and hidden as expenditures. But why were they being arrested for embezzlement and not for assassinating the king? Ceto had failed, but the king hadn't connected it back to her?
"Do not worry, Your Ladyship. We will do our utmost best to detect where your missing money has gone. In the meanwhile, the criminals will be left to us."
Amphitrite screeched and tried to reach for her most trusted lady-in-waiting, but the knights stopped her.
"Mother, please!" Triton begged.
Her son stopped her from falling onto the floor just in time.
Soon the royal knights left with Amphitrite seething in Triton's arms. They had taken away nearly half of her most trusted people.
"Don't worry, Mother," Triton said, soothingly. "I am sure that the king has his reasons. If they are innocent, then they will be returned. Justine will be served."
Amphitrite looked at Triton's naive, green eyes and clutched him close to her chest. Her poor, darling, too trusting son. Without her protection, Triton would have been thrown to the wolves in this cruel world. Only when Triton became the king of Eldoris would Amphitrite relax about her son's safety.
The truth was that those people were not innocent at all. And even if they were, that bastard king would find some way of making them guilty, she was sure of it.
The dowager queen allowed Triton to pour her a cup of tea to steady her nerves. The king of Eldoris was closing in fast, Amphitrite felt. This was a warning her stepson was sending her. Her paranoia was increasing like an animal realizing it was trapped in a corner. Though her hands were steady as she held the teacup, Amphitrite's eyes were wild.
How could she get rid of the current rulers of Eldoris now? It was hard to sneak her people in, and the hired mercenaries she sent never came back, either running away with the money like that damn maid she had used to free Ceto. Who could she use now?
Triton looked worriedly at his mother.
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She put a tissue over her mouth just in time as she coughed. Blood was spewed in the white material. The woman grimaced and looked at the time on her laptop, the words blinking on the document as they typed themselves.
There simply wasn't enough time left. For either that world to collapse once more or for her own body to deteriorate.
Her eyes closed as she curled into a ball on the couch. The woman could only give Annabeth this much time. Had she failed once more?
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A/N: Sorry not sorry for cliffhanger in previous chapter. And yes, a little shout out to canon of Annabeth taking a knife for Percy.
Next week, I will be updating the last chapter of The Wicked Tales of the Fae, just to finish that short story off. See you all next chapter!