The Assassin and the King - SOTUS

The Third Queen

Mar POV

I couldn't sleep again, I could hear the baby crying and then the soft melody of a lullaby echoed through the silent halls. I watched hidden behind the arch, as the woman Fon walked in the garden with the baby in her arms.

Once the baby settled, she sat on a bench, humming quietly. A figure moved, he walked out and wrapped her gently in a blanket and held his wife close. Fon smiled up at her husband before leaning on him as she rocked their daughter to sleep.

Watching that simple small scene caused a deep ache, why couldn't that be me? What did I do that I was never allowed that fate? I walked back to my quarters, heading for my sitting room.

The queens private guest rooms, but no one ever came to visit me. Even my staff only came to bring what I asked before leaving. I sit up when I hear a noise, is the baby crying again?

"Why keep crying...?" Was she unwell?

"Does it bother you?"

I stand quickly and look around. "No one is allowed in these rooms, you're intruding will cost you dearly."

"You dropped this." He says placing a scarf on the table.

"The Kings toy paying a visit this late?" I make my remark scathing, I was used to doing that.

"I wanted to talk to you alone." He says calmly sitting opposite me. "I thought this would be best."

"You have a lot of nerve boy." I say taking my seat again.

"My name is Arthit."

"Toy suits you better."

But he only smiles at me. "Does Siri crying bother you?"

I didn't like to name things, once you name them you form attachments and when they betray you and leave it hurts that much more.

"Who is that woman, why did you bring her here?"

"They needed a safe place." He tells me.

"You think this place is safe?" I snort. "Your foolish infatuated notions will cost them their lives. The King may be nice to you in his bed, but he isn't kind. He destroys everything he touches."

"He can be...too kind."

I look up at him sharply. How dare he say that? A nobody from god knows where coming here and telling me the King was kind? Me?

"Do you know what that man did to me?" I seethed. "He took me from my home, brought me here, to this godforsaken desert where I'm treated like a hindrance, constantly being told I'm not a queen. But that isn't his worst crime by far, do you know what he did boy? He killed my baby, I never even saw its face, never knew if it was a boy or a girl. He destroyed everything."

I took deep breaths, my body shaking. How long had I been holding that inside? I hadn't even dared whisper it to my closest confidant. I had kept it hidden inside so long, a toy made me forget myself?

"We both know that isn't the truth."

I look up at him sharply. "How dare you..."

"He protected you, he married you and kept you safe even when he knew you were with child."

"Protected me? He took me away from the man I loved! He..."

"Why don't you ask him."

He looked straight at me, confidently saying what he wanted.

"Ask him? You think me a fool that I will trust his words?"

"You trusted him once."

"I learnt from my mistake."

I had trusted him, when he had come I told him the truth without holding anything back. And instead of leaving me to marry the man I loved as I had asked him, he agreed to my father's suggestion and married me.

"I think you are very smart and you know him well enough to know he will not lie to you."

"You talk like a love-sick fool." I said through gritted teeth. "He will throw you away when he has had his fun."

He sits there watching me, it's his eyes, they feel as they are piercing deep and seeing more. He frightens me. I watch him stand slowly.

"I think you are afraid." He says as he calmly begins to leave. "It's easier to keep hating him because you are scared, you may not like the truth."

He leaves as quietly as he came, and I can hear it again, the baby crying. I had been numb so long, not caring, now asking or thinking, just flowing along as I was told, barely staying above the water. But those two, the mother and daughter had woken me.

I could still picture the scene when I had first seen her, holding her crying baby in the middle of the night alone and crying herself. She had clutched the small bundle and promised her she would be stronger, she would fight harder. And if she had to hide at the end of the world with her to keep her safe, she would.

It's what I had done when I was pregnant and alone. Scared without knowing what tomorrow would bring, trusting Kong with my secret. But I never managed to protect my baby, hearing her, a prayer had escaped my lips. The first in so long, I prayed she could protect hers.

I didn't want to flow along anymore, I wanted to decide where I was headed. The past held too many secrets, too many lies, was I ready to unravel them and see, what was beneath it all?

~~~~~~~~~~

Arthit POV

I lay on the bed, looking out as the small light streamed into the room for a moment before being hidden by clouds again. It would rain tomorrow. An arm moved around my waist before a large body moved much closer.

"What's wrong Kitten."

"Why me?" I whispered. "You could have chosen anyone."

He gently moves the hair from my eyes as he smiles.

"I knew you were coming." He says quietly. "I closed my eyes listening to you come closer and wondered if I really should move."

That smile was painful to see I didn't like it, the lost look in his eyes, it didn't belong in them.

"But my training moved me before I had time to think."

He's about to move away but I hold him in place, just like that night, him above me. He watches me for a while before carrying on.

"I looked into a beautiful pair of eyes as empty as I felt. I wanted to see the face that went with them." He smiles then, his happy one. "And you took my breath away."

His lines. ... I should have let him move.

"And then you tried to fight with me and for the first time, in a long time, I felt desire." He whispers kissing my ear.

Always that same spot, my body trembled beneath him, he knew well that place was a weakness. My arms pull him closer. What had we done? In the dark, we had unknowingly created a bond, that forged us together and slowly grew stronger day by day.

That night I had let him do what he wanted, and for the first time, I felt something that wasn't a regret or pain. I had felt alive and wanted. I let go of everything as he burned his existence into mine and I would do the same.