Jupiter Rising

Chapter Forty - Blood

My blood. Royal blood. Desired, reproduced, siphoned, and when all is over...discarded.

A mistake, to let it run away with itself and tell my heart it was infatuated. My blood fed my heart lies, and my heart believed.

William had my heart stolen and my blood at his mercy from the day we met. I was overcome and irrational, but I was young, and naive, and he groomed me, knowingly. A decade older than myself, he knew better.  Once my blood was at his mercy and its Royal value realised... it was over for me. I was yet to take lessons on intimacy for marriage, and my knowledge was not vast. The only thing I knew of it, was that you couldn't be impregnated without allowing it. Your body, your rules. A fae female had control of that. The thing that I never knew, and most wouldn't, for Humans and Fae were not to mix... was that the humans didn't have control of this. If a male wanted to, he could most certainly impregnate a female and walk away. Unheard of in our world. Horrifying. To think a man had such a discarding nature and no care of creation of life. It was more reason to stay away from them. I didn't know though, and my child was placed in my belly without my permission.

The first of my six.

My blood, my children, my world.

From the moment I married Aster, I became aware that there was someone out there who didn't like it. A presence made themselves known, letters arriving making threats against him. I didn't think it was William, I thought it was nonsense from a Fae Kingdom that didn't agree with our match. William was human, to me he was living a human life with our daughter and creating the world I had always wished for her, to be loved and cared for always. To be his little princess. As all daughters should be. I cared for him, and my heart still ached to be away from them. I wanted to be her mother and I wanted to be his wife. Truth be told I ached for that for a year or so after my marriage to Aster. Poor Aster learned to live with a mate whose heart was elsewhere. He did all he could to romance me, but it remained duty until our first child was conceived. I had finally allowed Aster to give me a child. A child I hoped would heal, to fill my empty arms, and mend my broken heart. The moment our child's existence in my belly was announced, threats came thick and fast. Threats against my child's life. Somebody didn't want me to produce an heir, and my paranoia ramped up. Aster became my protector, and he cared for me so gently during that pregnancy and with so much affection trying to keep us all safe, that love then bloomed and blossomed quite naturally.
I still grieved the loss of William and Cereus, and I always knew I would, but I was the Queen, and my people needed me. I couldn't have ever lived permanently in the human world, and Cereus couldn't have survived this one. Half blood would always have been eradicated. My child's only chance of survival, and mine, was to be separated. This made me protective of Elm, and then came Ash my beautiful chubby angel, his large pink cheeks a delightful place to kiss. My boys, my blood, my babies, and then came Linden with his father's charm. I was having a child every summer, not wanting to miss a summer without a babe in my arms. I loved being a Mother, much more than any other title bestowed upon me. I threw my all into my family and my kingdom and I had never been happier. I had never felt more peace than when surrounded by my large family. I took a summer off of childbirth after Linden, to focus on the duties of my kingdom with more intensity. I made sure Olamoore felt supported and loved too, devoting my time there when not with my loves. I tried to locate Cereus many times, using Sycamores mirror and magic that I had concocted and created, but she remained in the dark, like she had vanished completely. I only hoped that meant that she was far away now living her best life, her age every year tripling, her life missed. That never wouldn't hurt.

After another year of celebration and prosperity in Olamoore, I had Aspen. Another son. I wondered if Cereus would be my only daughter. Had I had to abandon the only daughter I was ever to be blessed with?! I fret for my kingdom, for without a female heir we appeared weak. I loved and adored my sons, but I knew the Kingdom hungered for the Princess yet to come.