Zoe Thanatos (13 page)

“I missed you,” she whispered
quietly, her eyes dropping to where his lips met her outstretched hand. It was
a side of her that was easier, less complicated. A part of him believed their
affair would be more convenient if she was always that way. The moments were rare
and in some ways they alarmed him. She was his Queen, a married woman with whom
he had shared a bed on more than one occasion, and he never forgot his place.

He always suspected that to her the
affair was a product of power and desire, never emotion. She had charmed and
seduced him the first time and each time thereafter was always at her whim. He
participated but never instigated, never once daring to openly address her as
anything other than his sovereign. Afterwards, he always felt angry with
himself for giving in, for wanting her at all. Although he appreciated that she
never explicitly treated him like a prisoner, he never managed to forget that
he technically was. The formality of his and Eva’s imprisonment may have ended with
the previous Queen and King, but they were never told to leave or stay. They
simply remained in the only place they had to call home.

“I have some matters to attend to,”
she stated. She released her hand from his and put it back at her side,
regaining the cool composure she was known for. “Perhaps we can pick up where
we left off?” she asked, though he suspected she was being rhetorical.

Not knowing what to say he simply
nodded. To his surprise she kissed him, capturing his bottom lip between hers
and tugging gently. She pulled away and smiled, and he again saw a flicker of
Zoe in her face. A knot formed in his stomach.

“See you later,” she promised as
she walked to the door and left, leaving him alone in her bedroom.

None of the Queen’s people looked
at him as he emerged from her private room, or as left the Straton’s residence.
Not that his or his sister’s presence in the Straton residence would have been
considered scandalous. The Throne Room was the centralized meeting room of the
royal family, where matters of state and other official business were announced
to the public.  Only the two private residences branched off adjacently from
the great room: the Queen and King’s, and the one he shared with Eva.

Evan retreated to his own residence.
The Queen had been there, too, on my occasions, often coming to him when the
King was away or otherwise engaged. He could still feel the impression of her
lips on his, his bottom lip still warm from her embrace. He was grateful she
had other matters to attend to, knowing full well their reunion would have
likely progressed to the bed.

Seeing Zoe’s face in the Queen’s was
unexpected, and the uncanny similarity between them was a disturbing reminder
of the woman he left behind. He looked to his bed and suddenly felt guilty for
having shared it with Kyra, even though it was prior to meeting Zoe. Still, it
was a reminder he didn’t want.

He returned to the empty common
room. A total of four rooms branched off from the main common area, two
occupied by Evan and Eva and the other two meant for family or honored guests.
They had each remained empty for as long as he could remember. He opened the
door closest to him and found that it was empty and lacking any customization.
The lights brightened in his presence, casting a sterile glow on the glass panels
that lined the walls from floor to ceiling. To his right he found the familiar
control panel that calibrated individual settings in the room. He touched his
palm to the corner and recalled the rooftop pool at the Canary Hotel: a sea of
terra-cotta roofs and spiky palm tree leaves set against a crystal blue sky; the
smell of the nearby ocean thick with salt; a trellis covered in bougainvillea
propped against a thick plastered wall; Spanish tile spaced sporadically along
the soft concrete ground; a seagull cawing distantly.

When he opened his eyes it was as
though he was back on Earth, Santa Barbara laid out around him in such detail
he could let himself think he was actually there. Satisfied, he removed his
hand and walked to the wooden poster bed; a white down comforter stretched out
along high thread count sheets and topped with thick pillows. Every detail was
perfect. He stripped his clothes off and left them discarded on the floor
before climbing in. He fell asleep quickly, his mind and body slipping back
into comfortable silence.

He was well-rested and relaxed the
next time his eyes opened. The artificial sky had grown dark during his sleep,
but brightened once again as he sat up. The common room was still empty when he
emerged. Over the course of a few trips back and forth he moved his belongings
from the room he was familiar with to the spare room. He couldn’t stand the
thought of sleeping in the same bed he had shared with the Queen.

The entryway opened and Eva burst
through, out of breath as though she had been running. “Something has happened
to the King.”

Together they ran to the Straton’s
residence, finding the Queen surrounded by half a dozen Crown Soldiers. They
were frenzied, talking amongst themselves while the she stood calm and composed
between them, trying to make sense of what they were saying.

“Everyone calm down!” she
commanded. The room fell silent in an instant, the soldiers coming to attention
at once. “Hector and Alcander will stay with me and the Nero’s. The rest of you
return to the Military Complex at once and await further instruction.” All but
two of the soldiers left immediately, leaving the five of them behind. The
Queen sat at the head of a long narrow table and motioned for the rest to
follow suit, Evan and Eva sitting to her right, Hector and Alcander to her
left.

“Where is the King, Alcander?” she
asked calmly, her eyes narrowed on the two soldiers.

“In Last City, Your Highness. They
have him and the book,” the first man answered. He had the appearance of a very
strong and proud man, but his face suggested anger and failure.

“Why have they taken him?” Her
voice remained cold but collected, her face stern. Alcander and the other,
Hector, exchanged a quick look.

“They say they don’t want to hurt
him. It’s you they want, Your Highness.”

The Queen’s eyes darkened, shadowed
beneath the deepening crease of her brows. “Why?”

Alcander swallowed. “They’re
claiming you’re not the rightful Queen.”

The room imploded into stunned
silence. The soldiers didn’t dare raise their eyes to the Queen, surely afraid
that by doing so they would be signing their death warrants. ‘
They’re
claiming you’re not the rightful Queen
.’

Evan looked to Kyra, his heart
beating like thunder in his chest, and found her composure unchanged. If there
was so much as an inch of fury or anger in her she hid it well.

“I want you to tell me exactly what
happened,” she commanded. Her stony gaze was set on Alcander, who must have
wanted to be anywhere else in the universe but at her table explaining why her
husband was missing.

“It wasn’t difficult to find the
book,” he began. “We were told by a resident that it was being guarded in the
City Center by a woman. An Elder. We found her alone in the nave with the book
in her lap. Not only had she been expecting us, but she somehow knew the King
would be with us. She requested a private audience with him.”

“A courtesy you did not grant her,
I hope,” the Queen remarked. Her eyes moved to Hector, who had so far said
nothing but whose fear mirrored Alcander’s.

“No, Your Highness,” Hector
answered.

“What did she want with the book?”
the Queen asked.

“She claimed it contained forgotten
truths about the monarchy. Proof that you and your mother before you - the
Queen Mother,” he corrected, “had no legitimate claim to the Crown.”

“And she said this with all of you
present?” The piercing tone in her voice was subtle, but nonetheless cold.

Hector looked to Alcander, looking
as though he hoped his fellow soldier would relieve him of some pressure. A
brief moment of clear silence passed before he dared look at the Queen again.
“Yes.”

“How did one Elder woman take the
King prisoner?” she asked. She looked expectantly to Alcander for an
explanation.

“There were armed residents hiding
in wait, Your Highness,” Alcander answered. “We had come unarmed at the King’s
request and were unprepared for the situation. The King offered her leniency in
exchange for the book, but she refused. As the residents took the King away,
the Elder woman demanded we pass on a message to you.”

The Queen remained unmoved. Evan
looked from her to the confused faces of the Soldiers. “Well?” he asked. “What
is the message?”

Alcander bristled noticeably. “She
said, ‘
My name is Thea of the original family whose time has long since been
forgotten. It will be forgotten no more
.’”

The words were like a paralytic,
stopping Evan’s blood cold. Every member of the original family had died nearly
a generation ago, their stories lost in time. The Elder had to have been lying.

The Queen stood from the table
without a word and retreated towards her private residence. Evan looked to Eva
at his side and saw that she was lost in her thoughts, trying to make a
connection in the senselessness of the situation. The two Soldiers looked to
each other nervously.

“You three stay here,” Evan
instructed as he stood. “Do not leave until the Queen returns.” Alcander and
Hector nodded obediently at him. He knew Eva would stay put.

The doors to the Queen’s residence
opened in his hands, welcoming him back into her private world. She stood some
distance in the room with her back to the door.

“Your Highness?” he called. She
didn’t acknowledge him. Evan closed the distance between them. “Kyra,” he spoke
softly.

Her head lifted and turned to him,
her body following suit until she was facing him. He could tell that she was
struggling to maintain her composure, fighting whatever emotion dared rise to
the surface and the public eye. Her eyes searched his as though they contained
some answer she was looking for. She looked not like his Queen, but like a
woman who didn’t know what to do next.

“Tell me what I can do to help,” he
offered. He cupped her left elbow in his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. She
used his grip on her arm to bring herself closer to him before reaching up and
touching her lips to his.

To his surprise she didn’t close
her eyes, but instead kept them trained on his as her mouth moved against his.
His lips parted, accepting hers between them. He kissed her back and felt her
need quicken, her eyes finally closing as he reciprocated the intimacy. Her
arms looped around his waist, fingers picking up the hem of his shirt. His eyes
closed at the touch of her fingertips on his skin, moving up underneath his
shirt until her palms were pressed against his lower back.

He felt a familiar wanting inside
him, one he both enjoyed and hated. A part of him liked the thrill of the
affair, not caring for Owyn’s feelings. He suspected the King already knew and
that there may be have even been others the Queen had wanted and taken. She had
a bewitching way about her, able to command love and respect in tandem with
obedience and loyalty.

Then he thought of Zoe. He saw the
smile he knew was difficult for her to manage, the way she overreacted to
inanimate objects that looked nothing like spiders, her humor and her sadness.
He thought that if he’d kissed her he would feel absolved of the guilt about
his affair with the Queen. There would have been no twisted sense of obligation
or punitive desire. The decision to kiss her would have been his and may have
even provided him an out with the Queen, a reason to stop.

The Queen’s kiss was a tempest.
When at last she pulled away her eyes were heavy and lidded, a burning in them
he knew went beyond just her lust. There was a fury in her. Her hands moved
from his back to his hands, grabbing his in each of hers.

“Bring me back the King, the book,
and the damn woman who took them from me. Take their whole city if you have
to.”

Evadine watched as her brother and
the Queen emerged. She had been under the impression that no one but the King
was allowed such a private audience with the Queen, let alone entrance to her
bedroom. She knew it hadn’t been the first time her brother stepped beyond the
threshold and had often witnessed her leaving Evan’s room when everyone else
had already gone to sleep. She had long ago accepted their affair and never
once spoke about it, not even to her brother.

 She noticed that Evan’s face was
fraught with tension. Had the Queen had instructed him to do something he was against?
She listened as he addressed the room, his instructions to the two soldiers
brusque as the Queen watched from behind. Both Alcander and Hector looked to
her for confirmation as Evan concluded and then the three of them were off.

Eva didn’t like being alone with
the Queen. She always felt as though there was an unspoken expectation of her
that she was never quite able to reach.

“Perhaps I should have sent you to
bring back the book,” the Queen mused, though her frustration was evident. She
stood behind her seat at the head of the table and placed her hands around the
back of it like a podium.

“I don’t understand, Your
Highness,” Eva replied.

“You’re very good at finding
things,” the Queen complimented. “I asked you to bring your brother home and no
one managed to be kidnapped in the process.”

“My brother is very cooperative,
Your Highness,” she acknowledged. She watched as the Queen’s face tightened
inquisitively. “Besides,” she added, “he wanted to come home.”

“Did he?” The Queen’s demeanor retracted.
She pulled the chair out from the table and sat in it, her hands folding
effortlessly in her lap. “What is your impression of this Elder woman’s story?”