His Lost Queen

FIFTEEN

Meredith

The pastel smoke clears and my senses come back to me.

Find her!

"Where is she?!"
"She's in-" something inside me twitches

Got her

Blocking out the response because now we don't need to hear it; our body knows where she is. Everything blurs as our feet move without care of who is in our way, guards attempt to block us but the presence close behind us orders them not to. We take each stairway as if we're floating and pass through doorways as if they don't exist, nothing is stopping us now. Not even the wide eyed guard stood sentry at the familiar door.

Lime, tangerine and lavender combine the strongest here, but the presence that emboldened me just a second ago vanishes, leaving my heart to fall as I stand in front of the wooden barrier and realize the scent isn't as vivid as it should be if she were on the other side.

Faina?... I call for her strength, but she's receded again.

Axel's voice cuts through my heightening despair "Open the door Damon". I step aside only for him to unlock the door and unveil the thing I'd feared. He storms in followed by Axel, the fury on his face is palpable as Damon desperately searches the en suite bathroom and joining closet "Where is she?"
"I- she should be here! She hasn't left this room!"
"Well she's not here! So unless she magically vanished where the fuck did she go D?!"

My eyes fall to the chest in the far corner "River you did take the book from her didn't you?!"
"Brock tried to give it to me, but I said it would be unethical to place that kind of power in my hands" she reveals honestly "He hid it somewhere only he knows.. if it's any comfort I don't sense any residual magic in here"
Axel grabs Damon by his scruff "Alert the others, we better find her before the King gets back otherwise he'll spread your remains all over this city" then shoves him towards the door "I'm so sorry Mer.. don't worry. She won't have gotten far. Her scent is still strong, we'll find her"

Exhaustion hits me like a tsunami, I feel the ground beneath me tilt and sway, spinning and twisting my consciousness. I'm falling.

Theia, come back to me..

-

Warm and soft I feel light as a feather, yet heavy as led - as if I've slept a deep sleep for several days. Cocooned in foreign comfort I will my eyes to open, but the energy I need to lift them won't come.
So I breathe, slow and deep and let the cushiony clouds envelope me with their delicious tingles and soothing bassy lullabies.

"When.. wake..?" so warm "Will.. ok?" so tingly and minty.. a crackling campfire comes to mind and a dark star filled sky framed with tall evergreens "Lumia" "I... ove you". Perfect lips feathering across my cheek, watery blue eyes shimmering as the sun dances on sleepy waves.

Meredith
The eyes now smiling down at me as the tingly sensation intensifies
B..

"Theia" the eyes dim blasting away the calm and alarm takes ahold of my sense's lifting me into a sitting position "Risa!"
"I'm here babe, try to breathe ok!" her tired, flushed face comes into view "We just got you back, your Lycan is taking it out of you-"
"Ri, where's my baby?!" her eyes water as they flick to the heavy presence at my side.
I can't bring myself to look at him. I'm so happy to be physically free of Corvin, but emotionally I can feel his pull. Everything he's ever said to me plays over and over in my head; but one thing stands out "Think of every punishment I've ever given you, if you disobey me I will inflict every single one on that little hybrid of yours.."

And now she's missing... when Brock told me she was safe.

Risa grasps both of my hands "We have every single one of our trackers looking for her Mer-"
My mind zones in on 'our trackers'.. fear abandoned, wrath bursts from my throat with fiery condemnation "YOU!" his glittering blues widen with surprise.