Dawn of Arcane Destiny

Chapter One Hundred

He nodded and she curled up next to him. She made several jerking motions, like her body was barely containing itself. But otherwise settled down. After a while Drayce assumed she was asleep. Maybe she had just been dreaming. She had been having weird dreams ever since they had gotten back from the Well.

She stirred, tilting her head up towards him, blinking her eyes sleepily. "You alright?" He asked.

She smiled. "Better, thanks." She hesitated. "I am a little hungry though. Would you mind terribly...?"

For a moment Drayce almost got up. Then thought better of it. "Sorry, no midnight snacks tonight."

She stuck out her lip in a pout. "Please? Just a quick one?"

Drayce chuckled. "See, Lillia doesn't pout, nice try."

She sighed in frustration. "You had an easy out."

"Tell you what? Settle down and go to sleep and I'll bring you breakfast in bed. How about that?"

"Counteroffer. Die." She grabbed her pillow and slapped it down on his face, attempting to smother him. Worthless try. When Drayce died he was not going to die silently, smothered by a pillow. He shoved her back and lunged forward, pinning her arms to the bed.

Their voices and noise had alerted the guards outside. One cracked the door and peered in. Even in the dark, Drayce could see the guard's face blaze red.

"Apologies your Majesty." He whispered and quickly closed the door.

"No! We're not—"

Lillia kneed him hard in the diaphragm. He coughed; the wind knocked from him. He grabbed at the sudden flaming pain in his gut. "Non—" She raked her nails across his face. He cursed again feeling a trickle of blood trail down his face.

"Let me go!" She exclaimed. Shoving him away. She hopped off the bed and ran to the door.

"Lillia! Stay here!" He called out in desperation.

"Guards! Help!" Lillia exclaimed.

They filled the doorway in a moment. She showed them the red marks on her arms where he had held her, even pulled out some tears.

"Lilly..." He knew it was no use. The guards were already glaring hostilely at him. He stepped towards them.

They immediately stepped in front of her, shielding Drayce from his wife.

***

"I don't think it's legal to arrest the king." Drayce tried to joke. It fell utterly flat.

"Why don't you just tell me what happened." Caelum said yawning. His hair stuck up on one side, and his eyes were puffy. "You do realize this is the first night this week I wasn't on night duty, right? This better be good. The guard outside your room said you assaulted Lillia."

Drayce ran a frustrated hand over his face. "She tried to kill me again, Caelum. I was trying to keep her in the castle."

"You realize I haven't seen her try to deliberately kill you even once." Caelum pointed out.

"What about this?" Drayce said gesturing to the four long scratches on his cheek.

Caelum gave him a flat look, which looked downright grumpy with the scars on his face. "Defense." He said like it was obvious. "Drayce, just give me the details."

So, belatedly, he did.

Caelum sighed. "Okay, fine. But why on earth did they think you were sexually abusing her? You've done some surprising things in your time, but I can't see you ever doing that."

Drayce felt his face heat. "When we started making noise a guard peeked in when I was pinning her to the bed." Caelum's face tinged pink as well, but his expression stayed as smooth and professional as before. Drayce looked at him sharply. "Where is she?"

"She went back to bed." He looked a little apologetic "In a separate room."

Drayce groaned. "She's gone, I know it." He quickly got to his feet and left the room and hurried up the stairs to the room she was staying, Caelum close at his heels. They opened the door to an empty bedchamber.

Drayce rounded on the guard at the door. "Where is she?"

"She said she was going to get something to eat. She insisted on getting it herself." The man didn't bother hiding his look of contempt towards Drayce.

"And you didn't think to accompany her?" Drayce said. He raked his fingers through his hair, not bothering to listen to the guard's reply. He stepped into the room and opened the drapes, but couldn't see any signs of life outside.

He turned back, "She's definitely gone." He glared at the door guard. "Caelum, it's high time you tell the guard what's actually going on. We can avoid future...misunderstandings."

He left, stalking back to his room. He wasn't going to sleep, there was no way he would be able to. He was just going to have to wait in anticipation of the new disaster Lillia was going to cause next.