His Red Queen

Chapter Thirty-two

When I wake up, tucked tight between layers of blankets, Maven is walking into our bedroom. He silently closes the door behind himself, then crawls into bed beside me. I roll over to face him. I expect there to be pain when I roll over but it never comes. I notice my bloody dress neatly folded on his nightstand. A nightgown is on me now instead. The memories come flooding back: Elara trying to kill me, Samson helping her, Maven Wrestling me to the ground until it was safe to let me go. 

"Maven, are you alright?" My voice is raw and scratchy. I rub my eyes.

He jolts up and leans against the headboard. "You're awake." Not exactly a question.

"I am now," I grumble. I run a hand over my nightgown, over where I had nearly impaled myself. "Well, the healer did a good job."

Maven let's out a low, harsh sound. "You almost died and that's all you're going to say?"

"Thanks for saving me." I notice a bruise on his cheekbone where I must have punched him while Elara was controlling me. "I'm sorry for punching you."

"I'm sorry about my mother."

He doesn't need to add anything to that to tell me he means everything she did. If it weren't for her, Cal wouldn't be exiled and King Tiberias would still reign. But Maven also would not exist if it weren't for her evil. If she hadn't killed Coriane from the inside of her mind.

Years of her cruelty, of her working her way inside everyone's minds in order to get what she wanted. I recall a few nights before Maven and I got married.

You know what happened to Coriane, Elara had said to Evangeline. Your time will come, my dear.

I sit up slowly, staring at the wall across from me. "Where is Elara?" I breathe.

"Locked in her room."

"She tried to kill me."

Maven puts an arm around me but I scoot away from him. Disappointment flashes in his eyes for a second before he runs a hand through his black hair. "I know."

I stand, putting as much distance between us as possible. "Can't you see it?" I cry. "She killed Coriane; you know that. She'll kill me—she's tried to kill me or have Evangeline kill me, before." My eyes sting but I'm not going to cry.

He stands. "Don't you think I know that?" Maven drawls. "I've locked her up. She's not going to bother us anymore." He closes the distance between us. I stand firm. "I sent Samson to The Rift. He'll be dead by the end of the night." His blue eyed darken, bloodlust sparkling in them.

I take a step back. "I don't understand."

Maven puts his hands behind his back. "I accepted Ptolemus' offer of an alliance."

I sigh. "You better hope Volo wants one because if not, I have no doubt that he will want vengeance for everything you've done."

"Everything that I have done for you."

"For your crown."

I pull a dressing gown over my nightclothes and walk into the salon. Maven follows, his steps barely a whisper against the cold wooden floor.

"That. Is. Not. Fair!" He slams a fist on the low table, making the vase of white roses jump.

"I almost died tonight because of that stupid ball that I didn't even want!"

"Enough," he snaps. "You're alive. You're fine. Mother is locked up." He sounds more like he is assuring himself, not me.

"I'm alive because you let me be," I snarl. Back in the beginning of this mess when I was first betrothed to Maven, I knew the Silvers would kill me if given the chance. And my usefulness has kept me alive thus far, even as queen. I am one step out of line from losing my life for real.

Do you want me to live?

Of course I do. And I can have you live.

The temperature in the room rises so quickly that for a moment, I can't breathe. The electricity in the room surges towards me. Purple veins of lightning crackle around my fingers.

Maven flicks his wrist, a ball of fire forming in his hand. His eyes are dark, barley controlled rage swimming in them.

If this is what he wants to do, so be it.

We circle each other around the salon like hungry beasts, waiting for their masters to let go of their leashes. Fire grows in his hands and electricity in my own. I keep my face blank, ignore the tiredness wearing me down.

"Go on," I taunt. "Kill me. Do what you've been waiting to do this entire time. While I was at a throne by your side. While I was beneath you. While I was fighting for you."

His face flushes bright white and his breath hitches. The fire in his hands shrivels to nothing. "I don't want to kill you."

"You're selfish to keep me alive."

The heat in the room diminishes and Maven steps back as if he took another step towards me he would erupt in flames and engulf himself and me in them until we are nothing but ash and dust. 

"We are both selfish, Mare."

The next morning we are both silent at breakfast. I wish Maven had just let me eat by myself, spend the day alone. Electricity hums in the air, cameras recording every scrape of a fork on a plate, each disgruntled sigh Maven makes over the missives he is reading. It's about the Lakelands, I assume. 

He traded Cal for an alliance with them. The same way he traded Samson over to Volo Samos. I hate Samson as much as anyone can, but I still cringe at the thought of what became of him in The Rift. Perhaps Evangeline won the kill, and ended him slowly and painfully. Or maybe Volo shot him. Though, I doubt the King of The Rift would be that unoriginal. He is as much a sadist as I am Red.

A servant hands me a cup of tea, colder than it should be. I glance up at Maven, who's nose is buried in the papers he's reading. Then, I notice the small note in the bottom of the tea cup. The ink is smudging, flowing away with the water. 

But I can read it: Midnight.

The last time I got a note like this, I was sent into a treasonous, murderous spiral with the Scarlet Guard. And Maven. 

Maven hasn't said a word to me since last night except, "You're having breakfast with me; that is non-negotiable." So, he's not going to pay any attention to me playing with a cup of tea.

I pull the soggy piece of paper out of the ruined water and smush it in between the folds of my napkin. Midnight, it is. 

I just hope that this isn't a trap. Who knows what Maven will do to the world if the Scarlet Guard assassinated me or kidnapped me. Farley told me we are enemies now. But who knows if she got Kilorn out of prison? This can be my chance to free him, to see if their locations were disclosed to the Lakelands by my husband. Or maybe that was another one of Maven's lies. A forged document. 

My loyalty is a fickle thing; a fraying wire on the verge of becoming irreparable.