Fire Rises

Burning Passions

As I walked with Ari towards Archer’s office I couldn’t help but feel the same sinking feeling I’d get when I headed to the Judgements. This time around, it would be my own brother on the podium and the thought had my stomach doing somersaults. 

This is not the Judgements. Nothing that bad will happen to Lucian. I continued to try to calm myself. The rational part of my mind was aware that this was completely different from the Judgements. There would be no audience cheering for a new standard of torture to be decided. There would be no rusted cage dangling over a fiery, bottomless pit. There would be no demons licking their lips in anticipation of their next meal. No one would be sharpening fileting knives in the corner. A crowd of monsters wouldn’t be waiting to tear limbs off of the condemned. I wasn’t in control of the outcome. Lucian wasn’t in control of the outcome. 

I could just end him before this even starts... I shook the idea from my mind. The rest of the world still saw Prince Charming as their golden boy. If we decided to burn him to death in his office everyone would assume only the worst of us. They wouldn’t be wrong either. Sure Archer was annoying, but he didn’t deserve to die for that.

We rounded a corner and saw Lucian and Maverick approaching from the opposite direction. Our motley crew assembled just outside of the office door. Maverick reached for my hand and gave it one comforting squeeze before letting it go and stepping away.

The doors opened without anyone touching them. Archer stood behind his desk with Autumn by his side. He looked different than usual. His face looked darker; his eyes were too wide and shifting quickly. His smile wasn’t the usual enchanting smile I had grown to expect.

We all froze in the doorway. My eyes shot to Autumn. There was no reason for her to be in this meeting. 

What has she done?

Her eyebrows were tightly knitted together. She didn’t look malicious, she only looked deeply concerned. I wasn’t buying that. She had fooled me previously. She had fooled everyone into thinking she was good. I had to admit, the girl’s acting skills were superb.

“Please, come in!” Archer sounded way too chipper; his tone varying significantly from his appearance. Lucian looked at me with the same expression I was sure I wore. 

Welp, Lucian’s dead. Anytime Lucian or I approached the Judgements with that level of energy it was because we were in a mood to enjoy the process. The last Judgement I could remember Lucian having a similar excitement, ended with him personally filleting a man’s arm skin before force feeding it to him. Lucian had worn a smile that entire day. 

We all pushed ahead into the room. I went to take a seat next to my friends, but Archer stopped me. He grabbed my waist and pulled me into his body. He tilted my chin up so that I was looking at him before he bent down and met my lips with his. He quickly deepened the kiss, making a show of the sucking noises and saliva he was leaving across my face. He was groping at my bottom and moaning loudly. 

This man’s sole purpose in life is to embarrass me, I swear. This was more mortifying than when he had serenaded me in public. I was painfully aware that Maverick was in the room and likely pissed. I dared to glance back to find Maverick looking to be in pain.

What I didn’t expect was to see Lucian’s eyes glowing bright red, smoke pouring from his nostrils, and fire already licking through his lips. Archer was getting the reaction he had been after. He was hoping for my brother to act out so that he could justify a swift and brutal punishment.

Archer’s lips curled into a smile, but so did Lucian’s in return. Archer wasn’t expecting that. While Archer’s teeth were perfectly straight and his smile still somewhat charming, Lucian’s teeth were sharp and threatening. His smile was genetically designed to send anyone on the receiving end into spiralling fear. Archer’s face fell. He snatched my hand too roughly and dragged me to his side of the desk. I made a move for the seat next to him, but he effortlessly plucked my tiny frame from the chair and placed me firmly on his lap.

Okay, so this is a lot like the Judgements.

“Friends! Thank you all for being here! We have some very exciting news to discuss!” I looked around the room to gauge everyone’s reactions. We all seemed to be at a loss. “My beautiful, lovely sister has informed me of what happened last night!” 

...What?

Archer continued, “Come now, Lucian! No need to be shy! Autumn has told me all about your love for one another.” Autumn batted her eyelashes at Lucian. Lucian scoffed, he opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by Archer who dropped his voice to a more grave tone. “Now, you did cause quite a substantial amount of damage last night. I’ll admit, I was afraid I was going to have to send my own brother-in-law back to the Dark Place.” He placed his hand on my upper thigh and began running it up and down. It seemed like an attempt at comfort, but it felt disingenuous. “However, everyone will understand your… rash behavior once we explain that you were just trying to get to your True Love.”

My mouth hung open. Autumn did want to keep us both for her evil plan. Lucian couldn’t hold his tongue any longer. “I’m sorry, who the f**k are you?” He was looking right at Autumn. Her indifferent expression turned into something sickly sweet.

“Babe, you’re so silly! I know everything happened so quickly, but of course you felt it too.” She stepped around the desk and approached Lucian. My brother looked somewhere between shocked and disgusted. She reached for his arm, but he withdrew it before she could make contact. 

“Ummm, okayyyy.” He seemed interested enough to keep the conversation. 

Good. We needed information and if Lucian reacted too strongly, we would never learn what we needed to.

“True love, you say? Interesting.” He thoughtfully tapped his thumb on his chin. She made a move to reach for him again, but again he moved away. She pouted her lip and looked back to Archer, whose caresses had gotten uncomfortably high on my thigh.

“Well Lucian, if you feel that there has been some kind of mistake, I guess we’ll need to discuss your punishment.” Archer’s face turned even darker. He didn’t look upset that his sister was being denied. He looked… excited.

Great. Another evil f**k to contend with. I rolled my eyes outwardly, earning a small slap on my leg from Archer.

“Eve, here, mentioned something called the Judgements.” 

Fan-f*****g-tastic. 

“I want to make sure you feel at home here, Lucian, so it only seems right that your punishment be given in a… familiar format.” My eyes were now glowing as bright as Lucian’s. Ari’s face had gone pale. She had stood witness to many Judgements since everyone was required to attend. The idea of one taking place in the good realm, beyond the Dark Place was horrifying. Maverick looked indifferent.

“Prince Charming, before you get too far into what I’m sure is a well throughout monologue, I have a proposition for you.” Maverick’s voice was steady. There wasn’t a trace of fear. If anything he sounded a little bored.

Is he acting or have I fallen for another insane person? It was looking like a toss up at this point.

Archer intentionally faked a nice smile as he responded to Maverick. “Prince Maverick. I’m still not entirely sure why you are here. This matter does not concern you. This is a… family issue. Surely you have something more important to attend to.”

“Actually, it concerns me rather directly. Lucian is the rightful heir to his mother’s castle, which lies within my kingdom. After you have a chance to question him about how he was able to escape the hell that he was unfairly bound to, by your people mind you, I will be taking him back with me.” 

“Is that so?” Maverick didn’t say anything back, but instead held eye contact with Archer. 

I took the opportunity to observe both of their form and approach to this staring contest. After sizing them up individually, I was pretty sure I could beat either of them.

Lucian cleared his throat. Both of the prince’s heads snapped to him. “Gentlemen, as fun as this is, I think Prince Maverick has brought up a good point. We need to discuss how I was able to leave. If I found a way out so easily, surely others won’t be too far behind.”

Autumn inched towards Lucian who loudly moved his chair away from her. She folded her arms across her chest and gave a dramatic “hmmff” in protest to his continued denial.

Archer sighed. He was beginning to lose that razzmatazz spirit he had when we first arrived in his office. “I suppose you are right.” He moved a hand to my torso and began rubbing his hand along my ribs. The motion was visible to everyone in the room. 

Why, of all days, did I have to wear a crop top today?

I looked to Maverick, but he was looking intently at Lucian. Only his pulsing jaw clued me into his awareness and offense to Archer’s actions. “Alright, Lucian. How did you escape the inescapable?”

I had been so concerned about Maverick’s reaction to Archer’s latest display of dominance that I had once again forgotten to consider Lucian’s reaction. His voice made even me jump, “Do. Not. Touch. My. Sister.” The animalistic growl that followed his words shook the office walls.

Archer shook his head. “Now, now. Eve is perfectly happy right where she is. Isn’t that right, Eve?” He brushed a strand of hair behind my ear, exposing my neck to him. His mouth had moved closer and now I could feel his hot breath on my bare skin. I shuddered in disgust, but Archer misread my reaction. 

He chuckled lowly before brushing his lips vertically along the exposed skin. His large fingers tightly gripped my hips as he ground himself against me. “Tsk, tsk, not here, Eve.” 

And that, Mr. Charming, is the end of my patience. I couldn’t stop the fire that came from my mouth. It no longer hissed out in small spurts. This time it came spewing out like a torch. The entire left side of Archer's face was set ablaze.

Ari and Autumn screamed. Maverick jumped up to grab me away from the burning man. Autumn made a move to hide behind Lucian, but her efforts were again futile. Lucian was laughing so hard he fell out of his chair. “I-I-I tol… told yo-u-u to not t-t-to t-t-t-ou-ou-ch her-r-r!!” He could barely say the sentence through his cackles. Archer roughly patted at the flames that were starting to die on the side of his face. His previously pristine face was charred to a crisp. 

Now your outsides match your insides, you disgusting piece of s**t. That thought was supposed to stay in my head, but I could hear the words echo out loud. 

“Get. OUT!” Even Autumn jumped at the harshness in Archer’s tone. 

Maverick quickly grabbed Ari’s hand with his other free one and led us both to Lucian who was still rolling on the floor unable to control his laughter. When Maverick had us all gathered the colors around us started to blur and smear as we teleported from the office.

****

When we all materialized inside of my room Lucian was still laughing. Clara jumped from beside my bed which was only half made. She rushed to Lucian lifting his arms looking for any injuries. 

“The prince of darkness, here, is fine, Clara. It’s the other prince you should be worried about.” Maverick chuckled at his own joke. I was happy to hear he was still in good spirits, but I still shied away from him, nervous he was going to be angry over all the PDA between Archer and I.

“Hey… hey,” his voice softened and he took a step towards me. I felt a few tears spill from my eyes. He brushed his thumb across my face to wipe away the tears. “It’s okay! You did great. You don’t need to feel bad about what you did to him. He deserved so much worse!” I had to laugh a little at that. He thought my behavior was from remorse about hurting the not-so-charming Prince, which was hardly my issue at all.

“I’m not upset about burning half his face off-”

“YOU DID WHAT?!”

“Sh. Clara, please. Maverick, I’m sorry. I didn’t want to do any of that… I-I… I’m sorry I let him touch me like that.”

A look of understanding overtook Maverick’s expression. Without looking away from me he addressed our small audience. “Everyone, it looks like we are going to have to pivot our plans... again. Can you all pack a few essentials? We’re all going back to my kingdom.” Everyone looked to one another, but no one moved. “Seriously guys, beat it. I need to talk to Eve.” 

This time they all scattered to do as they were told, leaving Maverick and I standing alone in my room. He pressed his lips against my forehead. “Eve, I promise I was very angry at all of that, but I am not even a little angry with you. I wasn’t jealous or didn’t trust your feelings for me. I hated it because I was worried he was hurting you. I know how you feel about me. I also know we had a plan and I know you are more than capable of defending yourself… obviously,” he let out a humorless chuckle before his expression turned dark with regret. “I’m sorry I let it go on for so long. I wanted to intervene, I did. I wanted to help you. I-”

I cut him off by pressing my lips against his. “Don’t blame yourself for any of that, Maverick. We had a plan. We specifically discussed that happening. He was trying to get Lucian to snap, but unfortunately for his face, I snapped first. I don’t think he was expecting that.”

Maverick scrunched up his nose as another thought seemed to cross his mind. “Hey, um, Eve?”

“Hmm?”

“If I ever piss you off, please don’t melt me.” It was now my turn to scrunch up my nose.

“Hmm… how about you never piss me off?” I winked at him before standing on my tiptoes to lightly kiss him. “So ‘Mr. I Always Have a Plan,’ now that our plan A and plan B have been shot to hell in less than 24 hours, do you have a plan C? We really need to get the f**k out of here. Like, now.”

“I have a plan B.5, if you will. We’ll have to figure out the rest a little later, but first thing is first. you’re right. You just mamed this kingdom’s crown prince. We need leave immediately.”

As if they had been waiting for our cue, our small crew began reassembling in the sitting area of my room. Ari had grabbed her shopping bags from earlier along with a few things from my closet while Clara and Lucian had gone to her room to pack a small bag of her personal items. Like a well oiled machine everyone wordlessly gathered around, all too eager to be transported far, far away from the kingdom of Far, Far Away.