Valentine

Chapter Sixteen - Elizabeth

The words stung. Not only those that told me my suitor in all of this would no longer be a chance love interest, but also the self-degradation that Orion put himself through. I felt helpless, I didn’t know why, after all I knew exactly what was meant to happen there:

He wasn’t going to be around forever, he was going to set me up with another coven and that was going to be the end of it but the more I considered my options, the more I realized I didn’t want to be in a world without him. What would happen next? Would Orion leave to do whatever he did for his mother while I sat alone in a palace, watching and waiting for the next big thing to happen? Ruling over a pack of vampires with no guide or reassurance. He was there to fetch me and bring me back to the throne, he wasn’t meant to fix or change anything else.

And even knowing this, the sharp pang lurched in my chest. Orion would be leaving me, he wouldn’t be a part of my life for much longer. I was destined to be a puppet.

“I don’t want to do this without you.” I said softly, gripping his hand harder, so that he knew my honesty in the statement.

“You won’t, Elizabeth,” Orion turned to face me, a gentle hand cupping my cheek, “I’ll be with you throughout it all and until my death.”

A sign, maybe, that Orion felt the same as I did.

But a sign was not good enough.

He continued leading me down the cliff face, through the town and up the grand palace steps. There we were greeted by two handmaidens who gave Orion looks of disgust as his eyes turned away from them. They knew that his royal lineage was not one that they could supersede, though his status as a man was not highly regarded by them. Orion on the other hand, was oblivious, or seemed to be, not showing a care in the world to them. He was royalty after all, and royalty, through history, had always been looked down on.

Even on their high horses.

“Are you going to be our new queen?” One of them asked, a giddy smile on her face as she looked me up and down.

“I do believe so, yes.” I replied. The answer came smoothly, but the rush of butterflies in my belly suggested otherwise. Was I ready for this? Having already agreed to it there was no way of backing out now, and knowing that made me more nervous. I thought back, a moment, to the life I was leaving behind.

And still I regretted nothing.

“The queen is ill, very much so, and will not be able to see you today. You’re not to leave the cave until she returns to her sanity so that you may spend time with her, getting to know and understand what this life will mean for you. Do you understand?” The handmaiden who’d asked all the questions, pushed a blonde hair from her face, tucking it behind her ear.

“Yes.” I replied.

“Good. You can spend your time here in the palace or down below. I’d suggest keeping the prince beside you,” A taste of bitter malice lay on the vampires lips aimed at Orion, but again he let it go. I wondered if he was the kind to take action, knowing that in the past he had no problem chasing a man that had intent to harm me, and God knows what he actually did, but maybe here in the cave things were different. They showed their respects to his face, but I knew that behind his back they would gossip about him. Dear, sweet, Orion, “If you wander the city. There are a few bastards that will rush to rip your throat and drain you of your blood if you don’t have the right protection.”

“I understand. I’m sure you two can leave now. Orion can show me the rest of the way.” The handmaidens bowed their heads and turned on their way, returning to their duties.

I faced Orion, who stood tall with a smirk on his face. I couldn’t help but giggle, “What?” I asked in joyous glee.

“Nothing. Just the way you handled that. I think you have the makings of a fine queen after all, Elizabeth.” Orion replied, a smile, one of the only I’d ever seen him give, glimmering on his face. And what a handsome face it was. He had the personality of a doorknob, of that I was sure, but with his dark broody undertones and the short outbursts of a protective and significant knight in shining armor, I couldn’t help the jolt of electricity that shot through me as our hands met yet again.

“Why do you let them treat you that way?” I squeezed the tips of his fingers, caressing the knuckles with my thumb.

“What do you mean? The looks they give when they don’t think I’m watching and their holier than thou attitudes?” Orion asked. I nodded my head in reply, taking my hand back and shoving it in my pocket. I wasn’t sure who might have been lurking, and I didn’t want to implicate Orion in anything more than he might have been already, “When I was younger I acted out against it. I’m royalty and they are servants. I made them bow to my will, and they often died because of it, but after a good few years of treating them like I thought they wanted to treat me, I realized that even if I wasn’t a man, they would hate me for what I was. Royalty is a tricky thing to play with. Being royal in this world means that you are hated by everyone and everything. They either want your position or want you dead for holding the title. So I wizened up, I aged and matured and realized that this was going to happen no matter how many of the vampires I brought to the true death. They don’t always go unpunished, but some harsh phrasing because I’m just a prince or a rolling of eyes at my commands don’t really spurn me on any more. It’s not worth the effort.” Orion explained.

And I understood it all. He was a man that wanted nothing but peace and harmony flowing through these people, or at least it’s what I gathered when he came to me and asked to make me queen. The coven would fall to disarray had a queen not come into place, one that was an outside source for the most part, which meant that everything in this ecosystem would collapse. Orion was merely trying to make sure that everything was on par with the society he deemed necessary, one that could coexist and commingle with one another. There would be none of this, had he not saved the day. So a few young girls that came around and gave a splash of bad attitude couldn’t have been all that much of a problem.

“Do you have any questions Elizabeth? There must be one burning on your lips.” Orion’s hand gestured outward for a split second, had I not caught it immediately I would have missed it, no doubt heading towards my hand, but he pulled it back before he reached me. I supposed that it wasn’t his place to do it, and he wouldn’t want to break all the rules of the coven in one night. Society had moved on with the hand holding, but a bunch of vampires that were locked in the past might not have known about all of the new world’s norms.

“I guess I’d like to know when I’m going to be turned. That’s probably the biggest thing on my mind right now.” I replied, walking over to a few seats and taking one. Orion took one beside me.

“As soon as you’re ready. That being said, it would need to be within the next few days. We cannot have the queen falling to her sickness without a queen to take her place.” Orion nodded.

“And if I said I was ready as I’ll ever be?” I turned away from Orion, knowing this was a lie but if we didn’t do it soon I’d no doubt lose my nerve.

“Then I would say let the ceremony begin…”