The Blood Order

XXXVI

I follow him blindly, my fear driving me forward more than anything else. My feet shake placing one in front of the other. I attempt to keep in a straight line, but it proves difficult when he turns a corner and I am forced to keep myself from retching. 

"Let's get you fed." He waves his hands towards a different door than normal a small dining table coming into view when he leads me into the room, "I had this made up for us when I saw how uncomfortable the smaller gathering table made you." 

I stand there like a fish with my mouth open, I barely know how to process what is going on around me, and the deep rooted terror that settles within me. He pulls back a chair, and I sit down. He gently pushes me towards the table and lifts the silver cover off the food. A beautiful pasta dish resides before me with a small bowl of pills to the right. 

"I had the chef pour you a glass of wine as well, thought it might help you." He sits down next to me lifting the lid off his own plate. 

"Is it drugged like the bath?" Bold Sultana. Too bold. 

"Your bath wasn't drugged, they are relaxation salts that I did not take in consideration with your weight. I should have handled that better." 

I ignore his weak apology and focus on stabbing my noddles over and over. I am still more than full from breakfast, and the tablets to help me 'adjust' to this parallel make my stomach roll. Raphael watches me closely, his eyes darting over my lack of eating. I see his shoulders tense and hear the deep sigh when he sets his fork down. 

"She isn't worth your fear. Your personal attendant wanted nothing but harm for you. Her jealously over came her." 

"How in the world do you know that?" I scold the heat of my anger bubbling under my skin. This feels good. 

He gives me a small smile, "Your bruises are obvious, even with the makeup my firefly. Jamal reported on your abuse long before I came to you. Per old law I wasn't able to protect your home, but your friend as you so called her should have. She knew just as much as the rest of us. She saw how thin you were, your dark circles, the scattered purple over your beautiful skin and yet she still fucked with you. Valerian only came to you when she needed something because she knew you would help her, but my love, when did she help you." 

"She... she..." I force myself to think through my childhood memories, all the laughs I had with her, but not once did the thoughts of her helping me come to mind. I remember picking her up when she was lonely, inviting her to my family events, and helping her when I was just as broken. Even when she made my life a personal hell in college I still tended to her and kept her secret, but she went and screwed my ex, vandalized my things, and worked havoc on parts of my life, "She's a good person." 

"Was. And I will have to disagree. One day you will forgive me, and see the true side of things. Now eat." 

"I'm not hungry." 

He takes in a deep breath, forcing himself to release it slowly, "While I care about you and would do anything for you, I am not a patient man. Eat or I will bend you over my knee and spank you until you listen." 

I take a bite of pasta and soon enough shove down the pills. 

"This afternoon you and I are going to go over blood order customs, and we have a few men that need to be dealt with. You are to attend their hearings with me." 

"What?" 

"I don't care to repeat myself." He mumbles but tries to give a comforting gaze, "I have three men that have threatened the crown that need to be handled. As my queen you are to stand with me as I serve them their punishment." 

"These men, what did they do?" I rub my hands down my legs digging my toes into the ground to center myself. 

"One of these men is your father, I had him brought from your parallel. The other two simply tried to kill me." 

"My father?" My fork hits the floor, Raphael reaching his hand over to the corner of the table to cover it while I bend over. It protects my side as I come back up and set the fork back down on the table. 

"He beat you senseless and starved you when he has more than the means to provide for you. Not only that, he tried to marry off my mate. He deserves to be fed lava until his insides roast. A fate worse than hell itself." 

"You can't kill people that hurt me! I... I... " I scream a scream thats built up from all the frustration these twenty four hours have developed, but he takes it like I did nothing. 

Raphael pauses his meal, looks me over one more time and gives me a laugh that comes deep from the evil of his intentions, "Watch me."