I sit amidst the ocean of papers, sprawled across me in a diligent bunch of approvals, denials, justice, and many more, and as I rake myself through every bunch reading the content and signing it, I curse my five days of absence in the palace. Five days of absence have gathered over weeks of work for me, and however fast, I try to get rid of the work and climb into Max’s arms. It is barely even possible, for me to get out of the study. I groan frustrated stretching myself to get rid of the knots on my shoulders when the door creeks open, filling the room with the scent of night jasmines. The familiar silhouette, scoots behind me - my eyes not once leaving the twitch on that handsome face. “Oh god, this is all I needed”, I say as Max places his hands on my shoulder, massaging them in a small circular motion. A chuckle escapes his lips, the sound enough music to lull me to sleep. “You could have told me, I could do it every minute of the day”, Max says, his breath fanning across my
“Queen Adria, to what do I owe your visit”, the healer bows to me as I enter the chambers. My mind is still in a daze at the happenings in the hallway, but my body is reluctant to heed any thoughts. “Can you give me some energy potions? My body feels too weak from all the work, and I also feel dizzy since morning.”, I say, taking a seat near the healer. He walks to me, pinching my wrist between his index and thumb, and my eyes wander across the chambers until he finishes the routine check. “Hmm… It looks like your body is weak from the constant work, and it does not get enough nutrients from the food.”, he says circling to one of the cabinets behind me. “I would suggest you take some herbs to make up for the lack of nutrients. ”, he draws out glasses of herbs that I never bothered to learn and puts them in a small jute bag tucked from his waist. “Here. These will help you to feel better.”, I take the bag tucked between his fingers, when my nose again catches the whiff of the same
I shove the scrolls on the rear end of the study back and forth to find the copy of the will written by my father. Like any other important document, it had lost its timeline and was now sitting amidst other equally important but not needed scrolls on the shelf. It has to be somewhere here, I huff shifting almost twenty scrolls down the shelf, and finding the golden embroidered royal blue scroll, that changed my fate in a single day. Today morning, I woke up wrapped securely between the heat of Max's arm and the guilt of my allegations ran through my nerves stabbing me at every instant. And when things start to hurt your love, your resolution to keep them safe increases. So, here I was sitting in the dust showering above my head, sifting through piles of scrolls, ignoring all the piles stacked on my desk, to find the destruction in my house. After about thirty minutes, I see the scroll tucked in the corners of the topmost shelf. The scroll stands almost non-negligible with the outs
I sit along the bedside, with my head between my palms. My mind isn't working, it is just repeating the incidents of the entire day, again and again as if it wanted me to piece things together. But somewhere, something bugged me, something told me to not be rash and drastic. I wait in mom’s chamber, until all the extraneous people leave it, especially the ones that could think beyond gossip, and when I look up after fifteen minutes, I could only see one help standing beside mom. The biggest gossip bitch of the palace. I circle around the bed, walking towards her, “Tell me everything that mom did yesterday. And I dont want you to miss a single detail”. The words fall out of my mouth in anger, as my face contorts in a red tint of rage.I see the terror cross her eyes, and with me mere inches apart I could see the shiver in her body. “My queen. Yesterday, the queen mother… she… got up and followed all her routines normally. But…”, her eyes trail between me and mom, a layer of hesitanc
“How can you be so sure that it was the yellow potion?” I bellow. It's like my heart wants to believe every word, my mind already placing the blame on Max, but a link holds me back, and I want to hold on to it tighter. “My queen, yesterday when you asked me about the potion, and I had explained the effects, I realized whatever your father - The king of the kingdom faced was nowhere different from the symptoms. Everything was so in-line that I had my doubts. And today when I saw your mother with the same symptoms I was afraid. I talked to her helper, asking her about the medicines she took, and she told me that Max told her, to put the yellow potion in your mother’s food”My guts twisted at every word that left the healer's mouth, my mind knowing all too well the deductions it had made before I fainted. Despite me being reluctant to acknowledge any facts, the hints of the betrayal were sprawled before me. Suddenly a whiff of the yellow potion catches my attention. I see the healer
A figure tumbles across the hallway trying hard to keep up its balance. It shuffles through all the stairs, climbing each one with a rush leading it to trip almost on every step that it makes. The doors to the chamber are pushed with a loud thud, as the figure crouches holding on to the knees, catching every breath to inform the purpose of its arrival. “What happened? Why do you look like you are about to be killed?”, the healer asks, looking at the disheveled appearance of the figure on the door. “The queen knows the truth”, as soon as the words fell on the ears of the healer, his head snapped up, his eyes threatening to light up at the piece of information, but he needed to be sure before he celebrated anything. “How do you know?”, he asks, containing his happiness, and tucking it behind his cold demeanor. “I heard them…”, the figure takes a deep breath entering the chambers and closing the door behind them. “Yesterday night, I heard the Queen confronting Max about the situation
“So, what do you propose King Martin?”, I say sitting in front of the two most powerful King. King Martin - King of South dynasty, strong, powerful, and most of all well-versed and experienced in ruling a kingdom since he was nineteen.And second King Monogary - King of the west, a plump man almost in his seventies, witty, smart, extremely cunning, and ready to pass his throne to his elder son, Prince Aaron. My eyes trail between the three men sitting before me, their eyes filled with the same disgust, and disgrace to see a woman on the throne. It’s like my body has turned numb to the looks, the rage in me at the disgrace a mere speck of dust that just bothers when it is in your eyes, and anytime you wish you could pluck it, and make sure it no longer distracts or even disturbs you. I sigh, at the silence I receive at my question, the meeting turning into nothing but silent scrutiny based on gender and prejudices. “King Monogary”, I address him looking him in the eye, and he chuck
“What?”, the word roars through my mouth as I look at mom for the incredulous statement she had made seconds before. “I am not doing anything like that.” “Princess Adria, do not forget I am your mom and you will do as I wish”, she bellows standing before me. Her face morphed into pure rage, as her eyes spit the venom in them. “It’s Queen Adria mom, do not forget it I am the Queen '', I hissed at the words that left my mouth. I don't want to disgrace her, but her decisions do not give me a chance to think rationally. She chuckles at my words as she walks toward me, “No you are not the queen, yet.”, she stands before me, her stature that of the Queen she shows herself to the world outside. “You will become the queen when you are a wife to some King. The East does not belong to you Adria, you are the daughter of the Kingdom - the princess. You were a responsibility that I and Dad had to look after until you marry someone, and become their Queen.” she says, the words adorned with
Every day Max gets up to ask only one question, “How do you know we were going to have a baby girl”, and I just shrug saying, “Mother instincts.”, and he pouts like a child folding his hands over his chest. It's been a year since I am married to this person pouting beside me. The day I came into consciousness, he pulled me down to the temple in the middle of the village, and in the witness of hundreds of people in my kingdom, he married me. There were no huge rituals, customs, or grandiose spread along with the city, and yet it was the happiest day of my life. Since, then it’s been like I am having a second skin that walks, sleeps, and eats by me every second of the day. It was hard to explain to the entire kingdom, what went down in the palace, but I was happy they accepted everything along with me and Max. The coronation was no different. As soon as I was healed, the kingdom decided to crown me as the Queen, and I made sure to give Max, a position that made him stand as my equal
“They are going to kill Adria today”, the healer says as I raise the dagger to pierce into his body. I freeze in my spot listening to his words, as my heart goes into frantic actions. “But, I can help you. I know where they will be taking her. I can help you”, he says and I yank his body up from the ground. “If you lie to me once, I will make sure this dagger settles deep into your heart the very moment.” Threat spills through my words, as his body trembles in my arms. The healer guides me to the dungeon of the palace, “She is in there?”, he says. Dragging his body beside me, I enter the eerie gravel-littered space. I could see trails of blood that run along the floor as if someone was dragged mercilessly on the ground. Something settles along my throat, not letting me breathe properly, as I walk towards the blood-stained floor. As I walk into the depths of the place, I could hear echoes of crying and laughter. Different kinds of heartbeats beat along the walls, but the nearest t
“The yellow potion killed him”“Max, tell me it's a lie and I will believe you”, I say clutching his palm in my hand. The heat radiating from them was comforting, and I nuzzle into his skin to seek comfort from everything that was going on. He pulls his hand away from mine, raising the bottle of the yellow potion to his eye level. A gulp resonates from his throat, his proximity to me letting me hear every tick of his heart. My eyes never leave him, they take in every moment of his muscle. I know he was thinking something, what exactly was never a question because I was waiting to hear he was not guilty. His eyes suddenly trail to the door, as a silhouette shuffles along the window, and he places a hand on my lips. Dipping closer to my ear he whispers, “It’s not me, but act like it's me and throw me out of the chamber.”, he says. I pull back looking at his face relief and confusion playing a weird blend on me. His eyes look at me softly and warmly, telling me he would explain thing
“Yes, she is telling the truth. Evander loved me, he adored me, treated me like the queen I am”, a glint of madness crosses my mother's face as she talks. “But, he was a mere servant who forgot his boundaries. Your father was never available for me Adria, he never used to look past the strategies of war. Even when he needed to satisfy himself, he used to go around hiring women and concubines. I was never enough for him because I couldn't give him a son, but trust me Adria it wasn't my fault, it was your dad. He was incompetent.”, she says as her eyes grow frantic looking everywhere around the room. “Ask anyone? Anyone.”, she says breaking into laughter. “Funny he could never even impregnate one of his concubines, and he used to blame me for not giving him a son”, laughing like a maniac she shuffles to the ground sitting with her head in her hands. “That’s when I found Evander. First I forced him, then blackmailed him in Adria’s and Max’s name, and then when I showed him my broken
“Yes, I love you Adria”, he laughs shaking his head in disappointment as tears roll down his cheeks. “I started following you two years ago. Your every move, your every habit, your every need, and in a blink of an eye I knew your strengths and weakness. I saw how you held yourself high before men, confident and not bowing to them. I saw how you enjoyed it when they feared you, especially after they underestimate you. I saw how you wanted to carve your respect in everyone's mind. But I also saw how you were running from your own mind.”, the tears clutch onto the edge of his lips, as he looks deep into my eyes. “You were running from the one person you love. Eyes speak Adria, and your’s were the loudest when you saw Max, admiring him from afar. And I always wondered why you could never see my brother with those eyes. The dots never connected, if you loved Max, then why did you fool Evander”, dipping his head back a chuckle escapes his lips. “And guess what my answer was just tucked i
TRIGGER WARNING: Sexual abuse, assault, and Graphic abuse.Azrael walks in from the door his face in a mock, his eyes staring me up and down in hatred and it is not what haunts me, it's the other person clinging onto his arm that burns me with rage. I scatter forward but the splinters dig in my skin pulling me back to place. “Oh, look at the Queen all helpless”, mom says as she walks beside Azrael her eyes scattered with a glint at the misery she sees. The phosphene in the air is cut, a sudden cool spreading all over my body relieving me of the pain. I eye the ground breathing at the dwindled pain when I see feet stop mere inches from me. My chin is pinched between fingers so hard that it would probably leave a bruise, as they jerk my face up to look at the person standing before me. His fingers leave my chin. Tracing the cuts on my shoulder blade, Azrael presses his fingers onto the wound, and a hiss leaves from between my lips. “Does it hurt? Tell them sweetheart”, he says, with
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------TRIGGER WARNING: Sexual abuse, assault, and Graphic abuse.The chapter contains scenes of sexual abuse, graphic sexual assault, and other kinds of violence. Readers are requested to skip the part if they do not feel comfortable reading any form of violence. Your mental health is above and beyond anything in this world.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------A body crashes into mine from behind, and as if the torture from the front was not enough he started to push his dick into my rear hole. My body had split into two at this point, as the metallic smell in the air grew dense with every passing second. The men used me as they please, in every fucking possible way they could have contorted my body in, and at this point, I was unaware of how many times I had been taken. I could feel them slide in and out, one after the
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------TRIGGER WARNING: Sexual abuse, assault, and Graphic abuse.The chapter contains scenes of sexual abuse, graphic sexual assault, and other kinds of violence. Readers are requested to skip the part if they do not feel comfortable reading any form of violence. Your mental health is above and beyond anything in this world.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------I feel my skin melt as the rod touches my body, the pain in me brimming the threshold I could hold until I am shoved away from the gate. “I am not letting you die just yet”, a voice echoes in my ears, and I squint my eyes to look at the face in the orange light that scatters around in the place. My vision clears as the pain from the burn subsides now that the rods were not in direct contact with my skin, and I see the men that dragged me here. I don't know who t
I place my hand over my stomach, as my eyes take in the flatness of it through the mirror. It is just impossible to wrap my head around the possibility that there is a human being growing in there, and that very small being has the flesh of the one person I love the most in the world. A smile crosses my face, the idea of me growing bigger and bulkier with a person in me sounding like a ridiculous tale. My hand caresses the region over the fabric, anticipating what size it will grow, how large, what will I look like, and how will Max… hold me?Will Max ever hold me? My senses wander with the question. The idea of pregnancy is not that absurd, what disturbs me the most is whether I will be able to give this small bean the life they deserve. A twinge of guilt holds me, nervousness picking up at my senses as I think about Max. Something seems off, what exactly is out of the question. But there is an inner voice that somehow yells at me, that something very bad is about to knock on my d