The King’s Summon was never a good news, especially not when the potentiality of a wrong made directly or indirectly laid in the past.
Gwen had been summoned by the King, she knew the implication and her cold heart was heavy with an impending grief.
Lost of herself most likely, she had every intention to give herself away to protect her family if it came to that. Too bad, her Mistress wouldn’t know that she had died for her crimes. She thought she was protecting her but truly her Mistress had only just put her in harm’s way.
She understood her reaction though, for someone who had lost everything, she was questing for something else to protect and she had picked her.
If only she knew that the ‘protection’ was no protection at all but a threat to her soul and the souls of her entire family.
It had only been a day since her Mistress had matched into the dinning hall and drove a dgger through the King’s heart and already the consequences were waiting for her. In fact, maybe it was good that it was happening now, she had lived in fear right from the movement it had all happened.
Gwen pulled the blanket over Zezi, whose face was scrunched up in a frown, a glistering tear running down her cheek.
While she was awake she always acted like she was strong but when she was not so on guard like this, asleep, it all came out.
Her hand brushed lightly over her Mistress’s head that was getting sweaty.
Was she having a nightmare?
Zezi turned to her side before Gwen could conclude on that. She had to leave anyway.
Also, Gwen had decided not to tell Zezi about the King’s Summon. Her Mistress might just make everything worse in her attempt to settle it all.
“Goodnight, Milady.” She tucked the pillow, adjusting it for her Mistress’s comfort. “Goodbye too.”
***
Dumbfounded.
In fact, that word wasn’t doing it justice. The emotion Gwen was feeling was beyond dumbfounded.
A whole lot of emotions in the shock department would do well to express it, yet, Gwen feared that still wouldn’t be enough.
When she had stepped into the King’s study, a lot of thoughts about what awaited her had gone through her mind but this wasn’t even one of them.
“Your… Majesty?” She looked up from where she had fallen to her kneels, to the King, who was sitting in his chair, behind a desk, his eyes fixed on the laptop in front of him.
Modern technology equipments weren’t something assessible to all, in fact, it was rarely used. Many of them were still used to the Crude way of life they lived during the Dark Times. Technology was still slowly seeping in though, especially in the castle.
But Gwen was more concerned about how this meeting would end than what would become of technology in the near future.
In fact, the King’s first statement lit hope in her heart. Maybe she could come out of this with her soul intact after all.
With a click, he closed down the laptop, his cold gaze on her. She looked down to the ground again, her hands a little shaky.
“I see that my mate has taken a liking to you. I wish she could look upon me with the same ‘light’ in her eyes. You are one of us. How did you buy her heart?”
How?
Suddenly all her thoughts deserted her.
Where were they when she needed them the most!
“I was k–kind.”
No. Her head rang bells and she looked up quickly. ” I’m not saying you are not kind, not, your Majesty—”
“I am not kind.” His voice bounce off the cold walls of the study. There was no need for her to sugarcoat him to himself, that was a job he had given her regarding his mate. She had obviously failed at that aspect because days after she arrived, his mate had walked in on him devouring one of the traitors vampire’s soul.
He had believed she would take a liking to him if she was made to think of him in a ‘good light’ but that had obviously failed.
Besides, he knew himself. He knew that he wasn’t kind.
“Well, you might have to be a little kind, ahh, more kind, your Majesty.”
Kind.
That word again. It was staring to piss him off but he wasn’t questioning Gwen for him. He was questioning her to know what his mate liked. So this, he would endure.
“Kind. Hmmm.” He tapped his fingers against the surface of his table, the small action filling the study with it’s clicking sound. It was deadly quiet till he spoke again.
“How shall I be kind. Tell me?”
Gwen’s eyes brightened. Feeling a little relaxed, her senses had returned back to her.
What a relief.
So could do this.
“Like the way you decided to give her time to mark her instead of forcing your mark on her. That was very kind of your Majesty. That was the kindest–”
“That wasn’t me. Doctor Bruce convinced me it was the right thing to do.”
Her words died on her tongue. Okay, that could be fixed, she just had to think fast.
Very fast.
“What about the way you didn’t kill her family?” She asked with a pressured smile, holding her hands on her thighs tightly, praying to her stars while she blinked in expectation of an answer that she hoped for.
“Lady Delice said it was…” he paused, frowning lightly. “What was that word again? Oh, ‘heartful thing to do’.”
Gwen could feel herself slipping away fast. She was getting off her game too quickly, she could feel her body shaking slightly again. More than before this time.
This couldn’t be her end. Lady Delice had given her books to keep her children busy and her husband promised her a different bedroom activity tonight. She couldn’t miss it.
There had to be – no – there must be something!
“Your Majesty you must learn to be kind on your own, people will not be there to tell you what to do at every move.”
She should definitely cut off her tongue because it have just put her in a lot of trouble.