His Human Queen

Back over the Eupines

Maeve:

His words were a chain, and his ultimatum was the lock.

Choose.

The word echoed in the sudden, ringing silence of the hall, a challenge thrown at my feet. He thought he had me cornered, thought he could box me in with passion and logic and the raw, terrifying power of his presence.

He thought he could offer me a crown and a cage in the same breath, and I would be grateful for both.

A slow, cold smile touched my lips. It didn't reach my eyes. It was a weapon, just like the daggers I’d used on the mountain. But, before I could slice through my target, a breathless man, one who looked younger than me, ran into the room. His hair was a mess, his breath was ragged and quick.

“Dante has asked for entrance into Garmorr with news of a war,” he huffed between breaths.

“Get dressed in the same leathers you wore to kill the Gryllus; maybe he won't sense you’re human.” Caspian tried to shove me toward the door, but I bucked, planting my feet.

“What? Why?” I asked, trying to push futilely against him.

“Go, Maeve. Dante Morrigan is a demon king and will strip your flesh from your f*****g bones.” At that, I did as he said, and when I exited the bathroom, his jaw was ticking, his stance was rigid.

I took three steps toward him before I was engulfed in a puff of darkness, stepping into something hard, something that somehow felt like a soft landing. His hands were hot on my elbows as he steadied me, his chest was as warm as his thunderously beating heart.

“Maeve, come,” was all Caspian had to say to break the spell this beautiful man had on me. I stepped around him as the fog cleared, taking my spot at Caspian’s side.

He looked at me then, his word echoing in my head... choose...

But I didn’t know what I wanted.

I was too distracted by the beauty that was the demon king.

“A mortal?” Dante’s eyebrow quirked up in some form of amusement.

Before I could say anything, the man snapped, and the guts and gore sticking to my clothes vanished, my hair still down, whipped around my body with the whirl of his magic before settling around me.

“There, you smell much better, little warrior... like... honey and sweet berries.” My face flushed remembering the way Caspian described the scent of my arousal.

Caspian, ridged next to me, growled. “Enough. My gamma isnt of your concern.”

“So she isn’t.” Dante agreed, but still, his eyes barely left mine as he told Caspian a tale of war from Firdilean. I drank in every word of kings and creatures, of gods and monsters that planned to flatten the kingdoms and the Eupines and take back the human world for themselves, and when it was over, I was left sick to my stomach.

“Good night, little warrior, you violent little thing,” Dante smirked as he left the room in a puff of darkness.

When Dante and his men were gone, Caspian turned to Nolan and spoke.

"If the spike in Ferdilean creatures is because of this war, we need to prepare."

"Agreed, I will lock the perimeters down. Nothing in, nothing out." Before Nolan could walk away, Caspian grabbed him by the arm and pulled him back to face him.

"Before you do that..." Caspian then turned to me, his face a stony, featureless slate. "Prepare two sentries to return her over the Eupines."

"What? No! Teach me about the creatures coming, I can fight." I snapped, but Nolan was pulling me out of the room, and I was watching Caspian walk away.

Nolan’s grip was an iron shackle on my bicep, his stride long and unforgiving as he dragged me from the hall. I thrashed, digging my heels into the stone floor, but it was useless. He was a mountain of muscle and fury, and I was a storm in a teacup, all my rage contained and easily manhandled. "Let go of me! You can't do this!" I snarled, trying to wrench my arm free. "Caspian's command is my only law," Nolan grunted, not even looking at me. "And his command is to see you safely from this land."

He hauled me down a torch-lit corridor and into a small, cold armory. Two sentries stood waiting, their faces grim masks of duty. They were massive, even bigger than Nolan, their leather armor worn and scarred.

"She's to be taken over the Eupines. Leave her on the other side and return immediately," Nolan ordered, his voice flat. "She is not to be harmed unless absolutely necessary." The sentries nodded, their eyes flicking to me with a detached, predatory interest. "Oh, I'll make it necessary," I spat, wrenching my arm free the moment Nolan's grip loosened.

I grabbed a shortsword from a rack on the wall, the weight of it familiar and comforting in my hand. The first sentry lunged, his movements shockingly fast. I ducked under his outstretched arms, slicing the blade across his thigh. He grunted in surprise, more annoyed than injured, as a thin line of blood welled through the leather. The second sentry came at me from the side, and I spun, parrying his clumsy grab with the flat of my blade and kicking him hard in the knee. He stumbled back with a roar of pain.

For a moment, I thought I had a chance. Then Nolan moved. He didn't rush me. He simply stepped into my path, his presence sucking the air from the room.

He swatted the sword from my hand as if it were a child's toy.

It clattered to the floor, the sound echoing my defeat. Before I could even think to run, his arms were around me, pinning mine to my sides in a cage of unyielding strength.

I kicked and bit and screamed every curse I knew, but it was like fighting a mountain. He lifted me off my feet as if I weighed nothing.

The two sentries, one limping, converged on us. One of them produced a length of coarse rope. "Hold her still," the first sentry grunted, his voice tight with anger.

Nolan's grip tightened, forcing the air from my lungs in a whoosh. They bound my wrists behind my back, the rope biting into my skin. I was still struggling, a wild, trapped thing, when Nolan threw me over his shoulder. The world inverted, my hair a curtain around my face.

The journey was a humiliating blur of jarring motion and muffled grunts. I was a sack of grain, a prize to be delivered. We moved through the fortress, down winding stairs, and out into the biting night air.

The Eupines stretched before us, a vast, churning sea of sickly green fog that shimmered with an unnatural light. It smelled of ozone and decay, a scent that promised madness and death. Nolan didn't hesitate.

He stepped into the fog, and the world dissolved. The cold was the first thing that registered, a deep, penetrating cold that seeped into my bones. It was followed by a cacophony of whispers, sibilant voices that slithered into my ears, promising horrors and showing me visions of my deepest fears. I saw Caspian turning his back on me, saw my family burning, saw myself lost and alone in the fog for eternity.

I squeezed my eyes shut, a silent scream trapped in my throat. The sentries flanked Nolan, their heavy boots crunching on what felt like glass and bone. The journey was an eternity of torment.

The whispers grew louder, more insistent, clawing at the edges of my sanity. I felt a hand on my back, not Nolan's, but something cold and slimy, and I bucked wildly, a raw sob escaping my lips.

Then, as suddenly as it began, it was over. We stepped out of the fog, and the air was clean and sharp, smelling of pine and earth. The moon was high and bright above a forest of silent trees.

Nolan slid me from his shoulder, letting me drop unceremoniously to the ground. The sentries stepped forward, one of them pulling a knife. He sawed through the ropes on my wrists, his expression still blank. I was free. But I was also alone. I looked back at the wall of shimmering green fog, a barrier between me and everything I had just started to understand.

"Caspian said to leave you," Nolan stated, his voice devoid of all emotion. He and the sentries were already backing away, their bodies dissolving into the fog as they prepared to cross back.

"He said you were not our concern anymore." And then they were gone. I stood there, in the silent, alien forest that used to be my home, my wrists raw, my body bruised, and my heart a shattered ruin in my chest.

The ultimatum echoed in the emptiness around me, no longer a choice, but a verdict. Choose. And I had chosen to fight. Now, I was on the wrong side of the Eupines, and I was utterly, completely enraged.