Lowell moved stiffly beside me as we both looked at the horse man with seaweed hair. Every movement he made seemed soft and slow. The faeries circled around us with their axes and spears pointed at us. I had a feeling if we moved in anyway that seemed threatening, they'd be happy to use those weapons. The unicorn made a fire rope and tied Lowell and I together.
I mentally kicked myself for trusting the unicorn. I should've known better. I should've known the moment that I saw him that something was off. And now because of my stupidity, I was being dragged through mud and thorns to some unknown location in the middle of Faerie. The rushing of water turned to a roar as we grew closer and closer to the unknown destination. I kept spitting blood and Lowell looked at me with wide eyes. I wanted to tell him that I was going to be okay. That this would all work out and we were going to be okay, but Lowell wasn't stupid.
I wasn't in pain and most of the heavy feeling in my stomach seemed to have gone away. The unicorn led the way through the dark forest.
"Not much of a beauty, are you?" The kelpie asked as he grabbed me by the hair. I bit my tongue to keep the yelp of pain in. I stumbled over my feet as he looked down at me. "I thought you might be with how much the others have talked about you."
"She's injured," Lowell said softly, "if you kill her by accident I doubt your court would be happy."
The kelpie stared down at me.
"If it were me, I would be done with you," the kelpie said to me. "But the prince wants you."
Prince? He let me go and I stumbled next to Lowell. He carefully maneuvered himself around me so he stood between the kelpie and I.
The roar of the water blocked out a lot of the rest of the world.
A castle stood before us with high towers and a rushing river below. The castle floated in the air. The floating island didn't have any open area like the Lunae Lux court did. Buildings and towers rammed against one another with barely enough room for walkways. The black stones had designs cut into them around the windows. It had a medieval look to it minus the black stone that just gave it an Edgar Allan Poe feel to it and I thought about the story where the man lost his mind because he thought he heard a heart beating in the walls of a house. The place looked enormous and I suspected a small city lived behind the door at the end. The bridge was made of stone that ended at a large wooden door. The kelpie pounded his free fist into it and a loud thundering echo.
"Who is it?"
The voice sounded like it came from the Wicked Witch of the West.
"It's the prince's private guard."
Of course his chest started puffing out at this. He smirked and the faeries around us chuckled. The doors swung open and a gust of wind hit us. Once they walked us in. The kelpie grabbed my hair and threw me on the stone ground. My cheek hit the stone and I sat up quickly as Lowell kneeled beside me. His eyes widened and I realized he was scared. His hands shook and I could tell he was trying to pull himself together.
"Boy, take them to the dungeon!"
The unicorn nodded and tugged on the rope. I scrambled to my feet. Unicorn led us through dark narrow passages with torches leading the way. They lit up and went out after we passed them. I wondered if this was his magic. I looked up at the towers and smelled food. Unicorn stopped and pressed his horn to a wall. A doorway appeared and he led us down some steps. I stumbled and Lowell caught me with his shoulder.
The smell of rotting fruit hit my nose as we walked down. The roaring of water deafened me, but screams from the other prisoners broke through. At the bottom of the stairs a long row of cells with iron bars revealed itself. Long limbs tried to reach us and grab as screams echoed.
"Look, fresh meat!"
"They must be from the Lunae Lux court. I can smell the moon coming out of her!"
"Don't look so tough, do they?"
"Bet I could slit the big guy's throat in a moment."
"They smell human!"
I bit my tongue and held back the bile burning at the back of my throat. I blinked away the shadows to see cages, bars of iron, faeries screaming, and shadows shimmering like they were dancing. A god awful smell of school bathrooms and vampires' rotting bodies hung in the air.
A woman's scream made me stop.
"Matty!" Lowell hissed.
I looked into one of the cages and blinked. A woman, a human woman, crawled over to the bars of the cell. She wore what looked like to be a nice business suit. Tangled mess of brown hair fell over her face, but I still saw the outline of her mouth. She had chewed her lips raw with yellow fangs coming out of her mouth.
"I wouldn't get too close to her," Unicorn said. "That's one of the prince's experiments."
"Experiments?" I said.
He nodded and yanked on the rope, making us move. We reached the end of the hallway where Unicorn threw us in different cells. He released the fire cuffs off of us and sat outside the cells, humming something. I saw my dagger at his hip.
"Matty, how are you feeling?" I heard Lowell call out. I realized Lowell hadn't figured out that the woman was human.
"Okay."
I guess he knew my insides might not be doing so hot right now. I sat with my back pressed to the corner. There was a small slit in the stone wall. My heart pounded in my ribs and I bit back the fear. Ignore the panic.
I put my hands over my head and shut my eyes tightly.
"I want to eat them! Let me have a bite! A bite!"
Think, think, think!
The screams of the woman grew louder.
I got up to my feet and tried to see out the window. Yup, looks like we were floating. Castles in the sky and all that shit. Escaping seemed difficult before. I sat down and closed my eyes. Think, think, think.
The bars are made of iron to keep faeries in, but iron didn't burn my skin or make me sick, though the bars are too close together for me to slip through. If the bars are made of iron, it's a good bet that these faeries use iron in their weapons. As long as it doesn't have a sharp point, it won't hurt Lowell and I. Well, if it's a club then we might be screwed. Unicorn boy probably has to open the door to give us food. He may have fire, but he's about my size so I could take him down.
Not sure how strong he is. And I doubted that he was the only one down here to guard us.
Damn.
I leaned my head back and closed my eyes.
It wasn't really sleeping. I was just resting. I constantly knew where I was and heard every scream, every hiss, and every clink.
Drake came into my mind. He smelled heavily of sweat and smoke. He looked down at me, giving me the small pleasant smile he rarely wore. He leaned down close to my mouth and grabbed my chin.
Are you looking for me? Are you okay? I wanted to grab him and hug him tightly, tell him that I'm scared and that I care about him. I wanted to hug him as hard as I could and tell him that it was going to be okay.
How many days have I even been here? How long have I been missing? Has Eloy given up on making excuses and has my mother poked around my apartment and found the open drawers and the camera there?
Rose danced into my mind next. Was she okay? She wasn't worried, right? She had a court date with her ex soon if I remember correctly. I wanted to go and be there for her. Was she still going to kickboxing?
Even with the fear in my head, I could see her so clearly. Her long black hair and the way she smiled.
Would I see her again?
My eyes snapped open when I heard the jingling of keys. The door opened and I sprang to my feet before shoving my body on top of another body. The body wasn't small. It was a large, strong body with arms circling me in what felt like a hug.
I wiggled and tried to get out as panic made me almost scream.
"Get your damn hands off of her!" Lowell yelled. I heard something hitting the bars.
"Shut up, human." I recognized the kelpie's voice. "My prince, I must wonder why you want the human wench."
"That is none of your business." The deep voice held a threat. My face was pressed to a chest. My heart pounded in my head. "I'm taking her up to my room."
Hell no.
I rammed my elbow into his stomach and he let me go suddenly. I spun around and reached out to Lowell. I grasped his fingers when something heavy hit my head and blood filled my mouth.
"Matty!" Lowell screamed.
My face felt hot and I couldn't move as I imagined a bruise forming. I saw Lowell crying now. He screamed and I saw those angry tears. A horse foot landed near my head before another sharp pain erupted in my stomach. Blood burst out of my mouth and realized the son of a bitch kicked me. A loud groan erupted from me and a strange, "o-o-o-o-h." noise came out of my mouth.
"You stupid whore, you should be grateful the prince even wants to touch-"
"Touch her again and I'll have you executed." I felt hands on my back. "I'm going to have to pick you up now, Matty."
The warning made my body tense and I felt a man gently pick me up. He rolled me over so he carried me like a baby. He took me up the pathway. Looking up, I saw a dark man with royal purple hair and ocean eyes.
"Who..."
He looked down at me.
I know that face.
_______
I saw a dragon. A huge red dragon on a ceiling circling a fair maiden on a tapestry on a ceiling. The dragon grinned, revealing rows of sharp teeth. The maiden held what looked like a fallen star in her hands with her eyes closed. I blinked. I'm in a room with weird ass artwork. My body ached and I was too scared to move. My body felt too heavy to move. I'm pretty sure this would be how I would feel if I got ran over my a truck. I saw bandages on my hands and a cool cloth on the right side of my face. I looked down to see a long muscular arm draped over my stomach.
Don't panic. The voice in my head sounded oddly like Drake's.
Too fucking late for that.
"What the hell!" I yelled and sat up and crawled out of bed. Ow. My legs weren't happy with this and I landed on my sore ass. I saw I was wearing a skimpy white dress. Jesus Christ. My legs were bandaged and they shook under any amount of weight. Lowell. Hell, I need to make sure-
"Loud as always."
I looked up to see a tall man. He was even taller than Drake, but a bit more lanky. He didn't have the muscle like Drake did, but I had a feeling this guy was the one being protected and not protecting. He wore white silk pants and no shirt on. I saw paper thin wings folded on his back neatly and properly unlike Drake's wings which were ripped and looked like they had seen better days. However, this man was a good deal darker than Drake like his skin constantly looked for any sun to warm him. His ears were pointed slightly and I saw there were tiny white fangs in his mouth.
He scooped me up carefully and set me on the bed.
"Who the hell are you?"
The man leaned forward a bit. "I'm Prince Erasmus."
A prince?
"Don't you remember me?" He asked as I shook my head. I think I would've remembered a good looking faerie with ocean blue eyes. The prince leaned down and kissed my forehead.
My stomach dropped and I felt a nervous knot forming in my stomach.
"You're..." There's no way.
"I'm?"
I looked up at his face. It was like remembering a dream after thinking you didn't dream a thing.
"You're the prince from..." I began. "You helped me as a kid."
He smirked. I don't remember the prince from my childhood smirking like that. He leaned forward a little with his mouth open and he held my chin firmly in his hand.
"Exactly."
He pressed his mouth to mine. The kiss felt hard and I couldn't move. His mouth pressed firmly against mine until I pulled back.
I put my hands over my mouth and felt my body shake a little. I thought about the old man with the purple hair from the market.
"You were there at the market. You gave me the dagger."
Erasmus nodded. "Yes, did you like that drink? A queen does need to be able to protect herself." I'm sorry, did he say queen? Erasmus grabbed a strand of my hair and played with it. "You certainly took your time coming to me, little one."
When you're a woman, come to me. Jesus Christ, I thought I made that up as a kid.
"I told you to come as soon as you were a woman."
I wondered what his definition of a woman was. I had a funny feeling it was a lot earlier than most humans would.
"What took you so long?"
I shook my head. "I'm sorry, what?"
"You're a bit slow, aren't you?"
"And you're a bit of an ass, aren't you?" I said and I could almost feel Lowell nudging me in the ribs. "I wasn't looking for you. I need to get back home."
He shrugged. "Even so, you are here and that's all that's important."
"What do you mean?"
Erasmus leaned back. "Don't be clueless, Matty. You know better than anyone how valuable you are. Why do you think I saved you?"
The same reason as why Drake started protecting me.
"Because of my sight?" I asked. All those sweet memories seemed to be tarnished now.
He smiled, but it was a bit off putting with the fangs. "Good Matty, I knew you were a bit quicker than the other humans."
He leaned forward a little. Enough where he would have press his hand into the bed to keep his balance. I smelled something sweet and musty coming off of him. It was the scent of my childhood. I recognized the scent and remembered how it would wrap around me whenever he hugged me, but I wondered how much of that was a ploy.
No princes with beautiful faces, isn't that what Drake sang?
"So what?"
Erasmus leaned forward and grabbed my chin. "I'm keeping my promise, Matty."
"Promise...?"
I'll marry you. I remembered the grass ring wrapped around my finger and a large hand grabbing onto hers. Well shit.
"You're going to..."
He grinned, leaned forward and kissed me hard. The kiss didn't register at first until he bit my bottom lip and his tongue demanded access. I threw my right hook and I got up from the bed even though my legs shook. I could barely move. I can't fight right now. This wasn't good.
Erasmus didn't touch his cheek. "You have grown."
"Do not touch me." I said and shook.
Erasmus tilted his head and looked at me.
"Does it have something to do with that boy?"
Shit. Lowell. Erasmus got up and rubbed the back of his head.
"I could just kill him, you know."
My breath caught my throat.
"What good is that going to do?" I said. "He didn't do anything to you. He's just a normal human."
Erasmus looked back at me. "Oh now I remember him." He touched his chin and grinned at me. "He was that little boy that you played with, didn't you? He grew too. He's much bigger now. You kept him around." He tilted his head. "You love him?"
"He's my best friend."
I'm not sure if that phrase would protect Lowell, but it was better than nothing at this point.
"You came here because of him."
I nodded.
A knock came from the door. I looked and Erasmus sighed.
"Come in," he ordered in an icy tone. My jaw dropped as I watched a tiny slipper step into the room. A fox tail flicked about as my stomach gurgled. The smell of cherry blossoms filled the room as the Huli Jing got on her knees and kissed Erasmus's hand. He wore an emotionless mask.
"Wha-"
"Is the job done?" Erasmus interrupted me.
The Huli Jing looked up, her hair moving out of her pretty pale face as her crimson lips parted, "Yes, the queen of the Lunae Lux court is dead."
________________________________________________________________________________
Author's notes:
Hi everyone! I hope you've been having a good week! I'm excited for you guys to meet this version of Erasmus. Though I'm not sure you'll like him much, but...
Eh.
I haven't been able to shoot much this week so I didn't get a chance to shoot the new cover for Orange Roses.
Anyway, see you next week!