His Red Queen | Mare Barrow

His Red Queen

No mean comments and all characters belong to Victoria Aveyard.

~the part in italics is from the first book~

"I can save you."

The words make my skin crawl.

"Your father loved you, Maven. You didn't see it, but he did."

"A lie."

"He loved you, and you killed him!" The words come faster, spilling like blood from a vein. "Your brother lived you, and you made him a murderer. I-I loved you. I trusted you. I needed you. And now I'm going to die for it."

"I am king. You will live if I want you to. I will make it so."

"You mean if you lie? One day your lies will strangle you, King Maven. My only regret is that I won't be alive to see it." And then it's my turn to grab him. I pull him with all my strength, making him stumble against the bars. My knuckles connect with his cheek, and he yelps away like a kicked dog. "I will never make the mistake of ever loving you again."

"If only that was true," Maven chuckles softly, touching where my fist connected with his face.

"What?" I was so tired of being a pawn in his game.

Maven steps closer to the bars, his face so close to mine that I can feel his breath on my face.

"You're going to be my Red Queen."

I stumble back, almost falling back on to the dirty floor. Beside me, Cal shifts, his whole attention on his traitorous little brother.

"Cal's punishment will still be execution in the morning. But you just admitted that you will never love me again. So what could be better punishment than for you to be my queen? For you to marry me, give your body to me, carry my heirs."

Finally I regain my wits "I will never be your Red Queen."

"Oh but you will. Especially if the safety of your family is on the line," he cocks his head, a giant grin beginning to blossom on his face. 

I approach the bars again.

"You wouldn't."

"I think I have proven that I would."

I back away. So far that the stone wall bites into my back. I ignore it and try to organize my thoughts.

"You have to promise me that they will be safe and no harm will ever come to them. Kilorn too, he's basically part of the family. And I want the conscription age raised to 20 and for Reds to get adequate training before being forced onto the front lines."

"Done. Any other demands?"

"Let Cal go."

Maven's eyes bear into mine. Just two days ago the blue would have made my knees want to buckle. Now all they do is fill me with disgust and hatred.

In the cage next to mine I can hear Cal suck in a breath.

"You know I can't do that."

The breath is released.

Maven motions for the guards to open the door to my cage.

When the door opens, Maven extends a pale hand towards me.

I hesitate.

"I still hate you," I say as I reluctantly put my hand in his.

"I wouldn't expect any different," he says as he begins to lead me away.

Before we round the corner, I spare one last glance to Cal. From this angle, he looks so small. And broken. Nothing like the proud Prince he was until I screwed everything up and ruined his life. His blood would be on my hands.

I mouth I'm sorry before disappearing around the corner.

What I didn't see was the tear that slipped down the former Prince's cheek.

AN: This chapter is short but I swear all the other chapters will be longer. I don't think I'll have an updating schedule for this story, so I will probably just post chapters whenever I finish them. I hope you enjoyed :)