Maven's Redemption [Red Queen]

Chapter 11

Mare's POV

Four walls... closing in... no way out... silent stone... torture...

I woke up screaming and batting at the person who was suddenly too close for comfort. I could hear whoever trying to stop me, to restrain me. I wasn't going to be held down again. I called up my lightning, preparing to strike... then the nightmare wore off and I was faced with a shirtless Maven, looking terrified, of me. My breath hitched in my throat, letting the growing lightning fade away into nothing. I began to sob, for everything that I had lost, everything I had become. I sobbed, holding on to the now charred sheets. Of course I ruined those too. His arms hesitantly held me and I easily fell into them, letting out everything I had been holding in for so long.

After what seemed like forever, I couldn't cry out anymore tears and my shoulders finally stopped shaking. Maven never stopped holding me throughout it all, but I had to move eventually. We couldn't stay like that forever no matter how much I wanted that to be possible for us.

"Nightmare?" Maven asked quietly after a moment of silence. I simply nodded my head, wiping the remaining tears away. I hoped he wouldn't ask what it was about and he didn't, Maven just kissed my cheek lightly and held my hand.

"We still don't have anything setup, you need to go and get the wires and the- oh god we should not have done that... it was just a distraction. The stream-" I started rambling, my heart rate picking up again.

"It can be postponed another day. I want to stay with you for the rest of the night. I want to keep you safe, Mare." He cut me off, squeezing my hand. I sniffled, feeling pathetically small.

"Okay." I glanced out the stained glass doors to his balcony, realizing it was still dark ."What time is it?" Maven shrugged with a yawn.
"A time when the both of us should be getting sleep. Real sleep." He pressed a kiss to my forehead this time and slowly let me lay back down

"I don't think I can sleep, I don't want to sleep." I told him, remembering how it feels to be trapped in my nightmares, no way to get out of the stone as it closed in, waking up just as I was about to be crushed. Maven just pulled the not ruined part of his blankets over me and pressed another kiss to my forehead.

"I will lay with you until you do then." Maven laid on his side, propping his head up on the pillow with one of his arms. I turned to face him. We stared into each other's eyes and I couldn't remember when, but I finally slept.

No dreams came for the rest of the night, no bad ones at least. I dreamt of Maven and I, in a small town but not one like the Stilts or any of the other broken Red villages that people were being forced to live in or in the Slums where Reds were forced to work. No, we were in a nice village where the sun shined bright and flowers grew in everyone's yard. We lived a small life but we were content. There was no crown, no Scarlet Guard, nothing to burden our lives but when the bakery ran out of our favorite sweets. We were actually happy.

I drifted awake slowly as the light streamed through the windows. Maven was pressed up against me, holding me, like he was scared I might disappear.

"What's that smile for, pretty girl?" His voice sounded gravelly, like he had only woken up minutes before I did.

"What if you weren't royalty?" I asked, sleep making my voice crack.

"What do you mean?"

"Well what if we were just two Reds living in a nice little village together, living a normal life, with no Scarlet Guard to worry about or anything like that?" I continued, replaying the dream in my head.

"I am not sure. I have never had a taste of any other life but being the second son to a king and now a king that will be known as a failure. But if I had the fortune of growing up in a world like that, I would hope I would be living in it with you." Maven kissed me softly before pulling away all too soon, I resisted the urge to pull him back to me and get lost in him again but I just closed my eyes sleepily. I tried holding on to the dream as much as I could, hoping that if I did that enough, somehow it would become real when I opened my eyes. But when I opened them and saw Maven in front of me and the still ruined sheets around us, I knew it would always just be a hopeless fantasy. But there was a small part of me that said that it was possible for Maven and I to live to our own sort of happy ending, whatever that may be.