The Blood Queen

You Should See Me In a Crown

TW: Attempted sexual assault, heavy violence, gore, and torture depicted in this chapter. SA scene will be marked at the beginning and end with asterisks, please skip if this will be triggering to you!

You were dancing on a floor suspended in space, held in the arms of a dark figure. You were comfortable here, the scent of metal and musk all around; for some reason you felt an intense longing to be closer. You looked up into the face of the strong, masculine figure that held you, but there was nothing but darkness. An empty void under a black hood. The ground rumbled, and you were ripped away.

You bolted upright up in bed, gasping, grasping at your neck and meeting cool metal over your skin. You took a moment to catch your breath, swinging your legs around the silky sheets and setting your feet on the cool stone floor. The dream was constantly recurring, waking you in a cold sweat almost every night. You padded to the mirror, waving your hand over the lamp as it flickered to life. You stared at yourself in the mirror, straining at your memory to recognize something, anything. The shade of your hair, the tint of your irises, the curve of your lips, but she was still a stranger.

"Hey," Your gaze flickered up as the door to your bedroom opened to reveal the large, hulking man, meeting his eyes in the mirror. "I thought I told you to get some sleep?" The strap to your nightgown slid off your shoulder as you gathered your hair over to one side, playing with the ends. Vicrul hung his mask on the hook next to yours, tossing his scythe beneath it and striding over to you.

"I had another nightmare." He stopped behind you, resting his large hands on your shoulders, dark gaze boring into yours through the mirror. "Successful night?" You probed, letting your own hands fall into your lap.

"He's predictable. Drunk by nightfall and crawling into the lap of anything with tits." You smirked, chuckling softly.

"They make it too easy." One side of Vicrul's lips turned up, his olive skin glowing in the lamplight.

"We strike tomorrow. We'll collect, and we're home by sunrise." You shivered as he ran his thumb over your bare shoulder, lifting the strap back into place. Something had shifted between you during the last job, and you didn't quite know how to handle yourself around him, especially when he touched you like this.

"All right." You stood abruptly, craning your neck as you stared up at him, the thin fabric of your nightgown leaving little to the imagination. He noticed. He shifted, turning to leave, but you grabbed his arm. "Wait," He paused, his honey-colored eyes sparkling as they roamed the planes of your face. "Tell me again about the accident." His gaze flickered down to the silver cuff that was snug around your neck.

"My Queen," He pulled back so your fingertips rested on his palm, then brought the back of your hand to his lips. "You need to rest."

"No," You let a note of authority slip back into your tone. "I want to remember." You dipped your head, staring at the floor. "I feel like I'm missing half of myself." Vicrul sighed, nodding his head over to the gauzy, canopy bed. You climbed under the covers, turning on your side and staring out the window into the city of Nar Shadda, still alight with activity despite the late hour. Vicrul sat beside you, leaning back against the headboard, his body several inches away.

"We were on a job, not unlike this one. We had our target lined up, some crime boss in a turf war with our client over..." He sighed deeply, shaking his head. "Kyber crystals or some stupid shit like that." You tried to picture it, but only the rolling waves of a freezing ocean came to mind. "We had been in talks with a mole, a known associate of the target who we thought we could trust."