With that they were silent. Matteo looked hurt and Keela felt tired.
“Go home Matteo,” she murmured. “Our time together was pleasant but for the sake of peace and my life, may it remain nothing but a sweet memory. I give you nothing but my well wishes and blessings of good fortune. Be happy Matteo. Goodbye.”
She turned and started walking away.
“But what if I cannot be happy without you?”
She paused but only for a moment, then kept walking. Never once did she turn around.
Thunder rumbled overhead, bringing the distracted Queen out of the mess of memories that consumed her. She felt a presence behind and over her. She felt the anger and frustration in the tension that oozed off his body and bore down on her back, she sighed deeply. The fortitude acquired earlier was slowly cracking, she turned around and bent her neck upwards.
Once the ring was off Matteo was truly a beautiful man.
Were all princes so disgustingly beautiful?
His eyes remained golden but were brighter than before, lush lips, high cheekbones, sculpted nose.
Ugh.
His body though……raw power oozed from his enormous frame. He was perfection. A different perfection to the King but ⁸ nonetheless.
Before she could greet him he asked one question. His voice sounded so sorrowful and lost. She felt guilt and pain for him. She now regretted that night.
“Why?”
“Matteo….”
“Why him and not me? Does he even love you? Or is your love for Ethren so deep that it doesn’t even matter if you’re married to that ice block!”
“Matteo.”
Her voice lowered and carried a hint of warning, letting him know not to go too far.
Why was this happening, was she so dense to not notice his crush on her until it was too late. And now this?
She stared at him sadly.
“I’m sorry Matteo. Why does not matter now. All that matters is that I am Queen of Ethren, that will not change. Regardless of the why.”
She felt shaken, his emotions were affecting her.
“Now excuse me,” she brushed past him and headed back into the corridor. “Do enjoy our hospitality, Prince Matteo.”
She left again without turning back. Even when she heard him growl aloud, slamming what she assumed was a fist into the wall. Not even when he uttered her name in a broken whisper.
Keela bustled through the lonely corridor. Her chest felt tight and her earlier confidence was slowly leaving her. She needed to get away, away from these walls and these people. She needed..
She gasped and came to a stop when a tall figure stepped out from an adjoining corridor ahead of her. As it walked into the light her hands shook and her eyes widened.
The figure limped before her, eyes gentle. Soft smile on warm lips. Ankle length locks swaying with his uneven gait.
She moaned low in her throat and shut her eyes.
Her chest hurt.
“My Queen.”
The sonorous voice rumbled and her eyes snapped open. The figure kneeled before her at a respectful distance. She felt no malice or anger from him. Just pure tenderness and acceptance.
Maybe that is why she fell for him all those years back. If not love, it’s the closest to love she had ever felt for a man.
When she pictured her life after Knighthood, when she pictured her cottage and dogs and pond, it was his face that she pictured with that warm, familiar smile. His face next to hers in the morning, his face bathed in dusk light as they sat on the porch of their home, his face.
“Amari.”
His name was a strangled, desolate sound in her throat.
He smiled again and gazed at her fondly.
“Congratulations on your marriage my Queen.” he began. “I wish you and our King bliss and I bless your bond.”
He shifted slightly, she knew his leg must be aching and opened her mouth to tell him to rise but no sound came out.
“I know we promised each other that if, at the end of both our tenures, we found no others to be in our heart that we’d be each other’s.” He placed his large, brown hand within his robe and withdrew a wooden figure, he stared at it for a moment, caressing the scarred face gently with his thumb then offered it to her.
Keela bit back a sob, she was almost in tears as she reached out and accepted the figure, still warm from his touch.
She was shaking all over.
“Alas. Such was not our fate.” He sighed, looking forlornly at her.
“Keela N’Jeri Taluith, our promise to each other is broken. As you have, so shall I search for the heart of my hearth, so she can become the hearth of my home.”
Tears spilled and Keela smiled an ugly smile. He had waited so long and she had disappointed him terribly. Even if he had found someone else, it would not have hurt this bad. No! She would have cried, gotten drunk, maybe found comfort in a sturdy pair of arms for a couple nights but she would not be devastated. Not like this.
“Be..”
Her voice cracked painfully and she coughed, clearing her throat.
“Be free Amari Eintou Sayers, such was not our fate. May the Goddess smile upon you and guide you to the heart of your hearth, who will become the hearth of your home. ”
He bowed his head and received her blessings and her pain.
She stumbled around him and fled.
He kneeled for minutes, despite his calm exterior he felt melancholy and disappointed. But, he sighed, such is life.
He was about to rise when he felt a presence above him, he looked up only to gaze into the cold, violet eyes of the King.
He lowered his gaze immediately.
“Oh King.”
No response. The King just stood over him, not speaking or moving. Tension made the air thick and suffocating and the majesty of His Highness’ presence seemed to generate a weight that pressed down on his shoulders and cowed him.
“Didn’t my people reach you?”
“Yes, my King. ”
“And didn’t they explain that your history with my Queen has become non-existent?”
“Yes, my King. ”
“Then, pray tell me, why are you here?”
The last question felt like the edge of a sharpened knife against his gullet.
He lowered his head even further.
“I came as a friend and former comrade in arms to render my blessings my King.”
Silence.
“I see.”
More silence and waiting.
“Let this be the first and last time. Never show yourself before my wife again, are we clear?”
“Yes, my King.”
“Now,” indifferent eyes peered over him. Feeling like a bucket of ice water pouring over his flesh. “Leave us.”
Amari rose and left swiftly, leaving the King alone in the corridor, staring into the direction in which his Queen left.
His left-advisor found him there a while later, seemingly deep in thought.
“If only she had asked…..”
“My King?”
The King turned to the man, no emotion on his face.
“It’s nothing. ”
He then walked away.