The D-day was finally here. Shivers of excitement rack my body as I get dressed for the coronation. Prospects of finally returning in my mate’s strong arms fly in my belly, their gentle wings tickling me from inside and making a goofy smile light up my lips. However, doubts lift their tentacles and rest them around my heart, giving occasional squeezes that made me clench the hoodie resting above my core. Both antithetical entities were battling for my final mood, making me live a nauseous moment.

Everything could go wrong so easily. I could mess this up so bad. It was terrifying.

Those thoughts wouldn’t stop spreading their lullaby in my mind. I take a big gulp of water, nearly choking on it, before feeling it rest in my belly, surely feeding my baby too. It’s low temperature somehow makes me cool down enough to finish dressing up. The coronation will start in a few minutes and there is no way that I would be late. Not on such an important date.

I get out of my room, heading toward the hall where the ceremony is held. Misha and Chloe were already there, having to attend as Gloria’s daughter for the former and as the castle’s librarian for the latter. Their relationship wasn’t known outside of me and Luka, homosexual relationships weren’t well accepted by the high society, even less between a royal and a peasant, which explained Luka’s dad’s reaction to our union.

As if we cared.

Now, however, he had gone too far. It was no secret that the King made a deal with the neighbouring kingdom, taking in their first princess, Selena, to marry our only prince, Luka, and thus uniting both our kingdom.

However, the deal wasn’t a fair one, as a dowry, Luka was to give our kingdom to our neighbour, while Selena had to stay by his side at all times. Which is why the island’s magic was being drained, the King sending it all to Selena’s father. I had discovered their deal with my servants’ help. They had intercepted all letters between the two old rags and sent it to me. It was really a good idea to win the staff first.

Anyways, I couldn’t let the King have what he wanted, which is the kingdom’s destruction. After it is all over, and if everything goes well, I will ask Luka to put his parents in the dungeon. We can’t spare them another time and risk other lives meeting their end.

I clench my jaws as I come near the huge doors, where the knights were searching weapons on the guests and verifying the identity of everyone. My body relaxes slightly as I see one of my followers among the King’s spies and I head in his direction. You can never be too cautious; I could fall on a knight with an attitude problem who would want to do a full search on myself to humiliate me or make me lose time. I did not need that right now, not at all.

My knight lets his cold facade fall as he starts to superficially search me, a small smile gracing his lips as he soundlessly cheers me up and gives me strength for what I am about to do. I subtly nod my head at him as a silent thank you, before entering the room when he slides to the side to let me in.

The hall was filled with conversations, each one would have passed as a low murmur if listened to individually, but together they formed an ocean of irritable noise. At least it made it easy to blend in with the tide of people the place hosted. The King must have invited all the kingdom to let them see their new shadow king. Therefore, when the time comes to surrender to the neighbour kingdom, everyone will blame my mate, not the King.

There were a lot of things the King wasn’t, gentle, loving, open-minded, but if there was one thing he was, and good at it, it was cunning. If I hadn't been Luka’s mate, I wouldn't have ever been able to see the way my husband was manipulated against his will. It wasn’t an old magic for nothing. It would be a sophism to say that everything old is necessarily better, but magic was an exception. The ancient earth walkers had closer contact with the gods, their blood mixed with divine essence and their calls immediately answered by the superior entities. Thus, it was easier for them to use transcendent magic that no one in our days would be able to summon.

There were a few exceptions, of course, the royal dragons being one. As the best sorcerer and his dragon mate’s direct offspring, the royal family inherited fabulous powers that could use the ancient magic. That’s why the King was able to use puppet magic and Luka was able to save James.

I have no doubt that the King was the one casting the spell, but Selena was the one made as the recipient of the magic, which is why I must dissipate the magic in her core. It would have been suspicious to see the King hanging off his son’s biceps.

I shudder at the mental picture before going forth to where Luka is currently waiting on the stage with the King beside him and the leech, well, leeching to my mate. The ceremony is about to start, I have to hurry. I can’t let the King name Selena as the queen.

Seeing me come toward them, the wrinkled man frowns, likely not expecting me to attend the coronation, considering that it was similar to someone coming to his ex-husband’s wedding. I smirk in my head but put on a sad and livid look on my face.

The show is officially starting.

"May I know what you are doing here when I told you to not ever appear before my eyes last time, dirty dog." Luka says in a robotic voice, like he was reading a script, with bad actor skills, of course. My heart takes the jab, squeezing to let out a few tears out of my eyes. I wanted to convince myself that I was only acting, but I knew deep inside that it hurt to hear my mate say those words, even knowing that it wasn’t really him talking. I couldn't deny that the pain I was feeling wasn’t just to be more convincing before the King. It hurts like hell.

"I c-came here t-to say goodbye a-a-and give one l-last departing g-gift. I w-won’t be a-able to let g-go of you if I d-don’t give i-it." I say, my voice quivering and cracking at some places. I squeeze out a few more drops of salted water, while I humbly look down at the box containing what I know was a green necklace. A few days ago, I went into town to look for the market to buy the gift I would use as an excuse to come near Luka. My eyes caught the sign of an oval-shaped green jewel that made me think of Luka’s eyes, so I bought it. I knew at that time that it was the one.

"Alright, come here. It will be the last time we will see each other." My husband says. The first sentence was said in a somewhat different tone than the rest of his speech. His talking seemed rushed, and his eyes rippled before the closed and monotone voice, followed by the dull eyes, took the lead toward the end. A quick glance to the King told me that it wasn’t planned, which meant that Luka was currently fighting the magic. Who am I to ignore his efforts?

With this said, I climb up the stage, Selena blasting me with her eyes while I approach what is rightfully mine. I keep myself from childishly sticking out my tongue at her and wisely choose to keep my head down like a scared maiden instead. What I wouldn’t do for my husband’s recovery.

I take the necklace out of the box and Luka slightly bows his head to let me pass it around his neck, making a few people gasp in the hall while I feel the laser beams coming out of the princess’s eyes grow stronger. After admiring my work, I pretend like I was putting the box in my pocket, but in fact I took the dagger and swiftly swung it toward the princess while whispering the spell like I had practised so many times before this moment.

Someone, I don’t know who, screams as the weapon pierce Selena’s breast, just at her heart’s place if she even had one from the start. Her eyes glow fiercely as she realizes what I just did. Before I can even rejoice and finally stick my tongue at her, I feel a sharp pain in my stomach, making me glance down at it only to see a small dagger stuck in it, Selena’s hand around it.

"I won’t be going down alone." The devil woman whispers in my ear, her hot breath feeling cold against my moist skin, before she takes out the polished knife, making blood come out of the open wound. I stagger back, my brain in a state of shock from what is happening. I raise my eyes to Luka and see his worried eyes, once again sparkling with life. I smile at him, not quite understanding why he is so worried and looks so livid when I finally succeeded in freeing him, before black spots enter my vision and the world collapses.

Strong arms catch me before my head hit the floor, the sparks tickling my skin telling me that our bond is back and so is Luka’s soul. I tiredly open my eyes and look at Luka, not understanding why his mouth is hurriedly moving but no sounds reach my ears. Why do I feel so damn tired? I just want to close my eyes and sleep forever.

Luka screams orders at people around us, most of my loyal followers surround us to form a circle, sort of like a protective barrier, while the others bring white towels. The way everyone runs around makes me think of headless chicken, the thought making me chuckle, which only made Luka look at me, completely alarmed for an unknown reason.

I think I lost consciousness for a few seconds, but my mind is so foggy that I can’t think straight, nor be sure. Anyways, when I open my eyes all I see is Luka throwing a red towel at a servant before taking a white one and pressing it against my stomach. As red slowly spreads from the place of contact to the rest of the tissue, the gears in my mind slowly turn and with a click I understand that it is just not someone with bad tastes that chooses red for a towel, it is my blood tainting it.

Even though I finally understand that I was stabbed by Selena, I can only pray that I will survive as blood leaves my cooling body. I don’t want to die, I really don’t, but as Morpheus gently coaxes me to join him, I can’t seem to be able to fight it, even if I know that it will lead to no good if I choose to close my eyes. However, there is one thought that rings louder than the others in my mind, and as I let my eyelids close, I whisper it to Luka, my eyes looking right into his wide ones.

Save our Micro bean, please…

Hey dear readers, I'm pretty glad none of you know where I live.

Don’t forget to:

Vote~

Comment~

And subscribe~

See ya next update~

(1 943 words)