Chapter 7
"Are you alright?" Castor ran over to me after I broke the vase I was holding in an attempt to make my room cleaner. It didn't work and only got water all over the floor which really made my day just a little bit worse. Luckily, it was evening and all I had to do was go to sleep for my next day to start but the nightmares that awaited me were stopping me from doing anything even mildly productive like sleeping. Looking up into his worried face, I reached out and hugged him. The vase fixed itself at my whim and I sat down on the floor with him in my grip.
"What happened?" He asked confused slowly putting his arms around me. I didn't say anything, I just sat there feeling the warmth of his body against mine and wished that I could stay like that for a while. My thought must have gotten to him because he sat down and let me hold on to him.
"I want to make you King," I told him for the hundredth time and as usual he didn't answer. Instead, he pulled me closer and planted a kiss on the top of my head.
"If you did that then there's a chance that I might be evil and only here to kill you and all of the cards for the sake of my people. I don't think you would hurt me if I did that," he replied after a few moments of silence. Resting my head on his shoulder, I reached down his back to where the tattoo rested. The faint pulse that radiated from it ran to my touch. I felt him shiver at the feeling of the tattoo pulling away from his skin but I didn't let it come off all the way.
"Did you know that if I pull off the tattoo I gave you, your heart would stop? It won't start up again," I informed him mildly waiting for him to give me some kind of response. He shifted slightly but only to press my hand deeper into his back.
"If you're going to kill me then do it. I serve no one else but you," He said but the words sounded wrong to my ears and I pulled away to stare at him.
He smiled evenly and put a hand under my chin. His fingers pulled my mouth to his and his lips met mine. As the kiss ended, I left my eyes closed and thought for a long moment about what I was going to do.
"I will make you king," I said without hesitation opening my eyes and stared at him without a hint of fear. A sad smile formed on his face and he shook his head at me.
"I can't let you do that. If you make me king then I won't be able to rule my own people. It's against our laws for us to be together. That includes yours too if you'll remember to ask Nil later," he pulled away from me standing up.
"What are you talking about? You aren't ruling both. I'm ruling the Cards and your ruling the ______," I said the word but I didn't know what it was. Confusion dawned on my features and I tried again to say the word that I was looking for. The same thing happened. My mouth could form the word but sound didn't come out.
"It's not for you to know right now. You'll learn it soon. There isn't a point in making something go faster than it should," he tutted shaking his head, a very unCastor thing to do. His face suddenly contorted and changed into the one person I hated the most in the world, Shelia.
"You really want to know don't you, honey? You're just dying to know. Don't worry, I'll gladly kill you," she laughed and pointed at my breast. Glancing down, I saw the knife sticking out and I reached up to get it out. It didn't work. The harder I pulled, the more it stuck. My hands were coated with my own blood and I wasn't able to grasp it any more.
"C'mon darling! It's not that hard! All you have to do is let him take over the cards! I'll let you find me and then we'll have our own personal dance. How's that? Just let Castor take over! It'll be fun! You can make him King and he'll kill you and then we'll all be happy! What'd you say? Sound good? I can't hear you!" She goaded me grinning like a wildcat.
"Go to hell!" I roared thrusting the knife in more and then pulling it out with everything that I had. It slid to the floor as I dropped it and the bleeding stopped. My panting made a loud noise to her astonished face and I sneered at it.
"What? Aren't we going to play?" I smirked reaching out and taking her shirt in my fist. The blood made a dark stain on the fabric that spread the longer I held it. A flicker of fear went through her gaze and she started to struggle. Smashing her into a chair, I let the blood create a binding that held her in place. Her glare didn't hide what she was thinking and I rolled my eyes at her attempt to rile me up more.
"You think I didn't know that it was you the entire time in all of my dreams? I'm not an idiot no matter what you may think. I have learned a few things," I informed her just looking down at her from where I was standing.
"Your prince is already a king," she burst out suddenly and I frowned at her.
"What are you talking about?" I shook my head not believing her.
"It's true! The Ace of Clubs is already a king of what's called the Poison Five. All of them have extraordinary powers compared to Royals. He could not only take over the Cards but destroy the entire system. The only reason why I killed all of them was to try to stop him but when you came with him I didn't know what I was supposed to do! You made it difficult for me to do anything but fight! I swear I didn't mean to kill Victory! He was under the control of that monster!" She shouted as I turned my back on her. Without so much as a warning, I whirled around, pulled my hand back and slapped her. Her head smashed into the back of the chair and I watched as a thin line of blood started making its way down her neck.
"I'm telling you the truth," she growled staring at me bluntly but I didn't listen to her.
"Sure. Just like every other time and when I finally let you go, you replayed what you did to Jack!" I spat getting angry.
"Only to show you that he was being controlled! Why would Victory follow me? He thought you were the reincarnation of Elizabeth! He would usually die for you!" she retorted just as passionate as I was. Refusing to believe her, I turned back around to find a way out of her mind. She always did this at night for some reason and it appears that I wasn't able to get out of her head completely.
"Why won't you believe me?" she asked with a catch in her voice.
"Pity is beneath me," I rebutted her tears that started to fall onto the ground with surprising slowness.
"It's not about pity! I don't give a damn about that! Just tell me what I have to do to make you understand that what I'm saying is true!" she yelled glaring at me.
"Stop the nightmares for a week and I'll see if I believe you or not. And tell me how to get out of here," I replied weighing my options. If she was truly the Shelia I knew then she wouldn't tell me how to get out of there or stop the nightmares. Then again, if she really wanted to screw with me, it's more than likely that she would do it.
"Fine and I'm not doing it to mess with you. If I wanted to do that, I wouldn't have let you catch me in the first place," she agreed. "Just watch out for the Poison King." With that, I felt the hold on my mind disappear and I stared at the empty space where the scene had just taken place. Pushing past the unconsciousness, I woke up to Castor staring at me with concern written all over his face.
"Are you okay?" he asked making me feel a small bit of déjà vu. Sitting up, I stared at my wall for a brief moment letting what I knew run around my mind. The Poison King could only be one person because Shelia had said that he was there with me at the time of Jack's death, which meant that he controlled the Poison Five whoever they were. The facts just kept getting stranger and stranger. What if Shelia had really been trying to save the Royals all along and wasn't able to tell anyone about it. The normal Queen of Spades would have never even considered making me understand but tortured me with how I had failed. Even agreeing to stop the nightmares was over the top. Whoever Shelia was now was not who she had been. It was that or I had been blind due to Jack's insistence that she was the very core of evil.
"So your majesty, what haven't you told me?" I asked glancing over at the former Ace of Club's face and watched as it froze for a brief moment before a confused smile took its place. The small second had told me all I needed to know.
"What are you talking about?" He questioned putting a hand on my forehead to see if I was sick.
"Poison affects Cards faster than humans. Did you know that?" I informed him taking his hand and bringing it up to my mouth. Pure fear etched itself on his face as he watched me stick out my tongue to like his palm. Within seconds, he had placed a small cloth in my hand and had snatched his hand away to where it resided in his coat pocket.
"What haven't you told me?" I pressed grabbing his face and pulled it towards me. "Tell or I'll suck the poison right out of you." My words seemed to make him consider what he was going to say but he stopped before he said anything.
"You can't know yet," he answered trying to get away but my arms wrapped themselves around his neck.
"Oh, I can't know yet? Who else have you told then? Nil? Kyle? Mr. Withers?" He winced at the first two suggestions but at the third looked incredulous.
"Mr. Withers would've already killed me if he found out," he pointed out and I nodded seeing the reasoning within that statement.
"Why are you here?" I demanded staring him straight in the eye. He didn't back down but I knew I could get something out of him if I did the most drastic thing that I could do. With a force of strength, I grabbed his face and put his lips on mine. His eyes widened as he felt the kiss and he struggled to pull away mouthing words to get me off. After a few moments, he stopped struggling and held me closer to him. Confused at his sudden defeat, I let go he promptly shoved something in my mouth.
"Eat it. It'll counter the poison that I naturally create. You're an idiot you know that," he sighed as I chewed and then swallowed whatever it was that he had shoved in my mouth.
"I needed to know. You'd do the same thing in my position," I accused refusing to take anything he said laying down.
"No, I'd seduce the person and then try to get them to tell me everything before they died. If they weren't able to do that then I'd give them a choice of dying slowly and more painfully or the opposite. They usually choose the opposite," he replied and I rolled my eyes.
"You're still going to tell me everything," I retorted and he nodded, agreeing with me.
Author's note: Here you are! Love me. You know you want to. :P