Page 52 of Queen of Fire

“We… we came back out and it was dark. Tarian walked with us. There were people fighting in the tavern and the feeling kept growing. I just felt like something was wrong. Then Maeteo got thrown out of a tavern and when Tarian went to help him, he hit him. I think he broke his nose.”

“He did.” Leo nodded, and I winced as the sound of Maeteo’s smack on Tarian’s face replayed in my head.

“Right. Well. He broke his nose. So, Cyrus went to help Tarian and I… I started screaming at Maeteo. Not very Queenly, I know, but it was like my emotions were not mine anymore. I had no control over them.”

Leo pursed his lips, but nodded anyway, his eyes still staying as understanding as they had always been.

“What happened next?”

“Maeteo started shouting back.” I sighed, “He told me I was not fit to be Queen; my parents would be ashamed of me. Cyrus was talking to me as well, but it sounded like… like I was underwater. It felt like I was drowning.”

“You were overwhelmed.”

“Yes,” I nodded, “Completely overwhelmed. I had no control of my body, and it felt like someone had set me on fire from the inside, and I exploded.”

“Literally.” Gracie said from beside me, and I swung my head around to glare at her, but with her cheeks full of cake and her eyes twinkling mischievously, I could not help the small smile that grew on my face.

Leo nodded from where he was sitting but did not talk straight away. He looked away from me to the cake in front of him as he finished it, dusting his hands off on histrousers and pushing himself up from where he sat on the couch. I blinked, wondering what he was doing, and watched as he walked through my living space to my desk. He gathered several pieces of paper into his hand, and a feathered pen, bringing them to the table between the couches and placing them in front of me.

I stared at the pen and paper, my eyebrows furrowing as I tried to unravel what the point of them was.

“Write.” Leo said simply, and I looked up at him with my eyes wide, completely lost. “Write what it felt like between the drowning and the erupting. I need to know exactly what it felt like.”

“Why?” I asked, incredulousness lacing my tone as I looked at Leo like he had lost his mind.

“So, I can get you back there.” He said, as though it was nothing, “If you are to learn how to control it, you need to first learn to control your emotions. You need to be brought to the point of eruption to learn how to stop it.”

“I didn’t peg you as a sadist, Leo.” Gracie murmured from beside me, making me snort as I reached forward to take the pen in my hand. Leo laughed loudly, shaking his head.

“I gain no pleasure from Her Majesty’s pain, trust me,” His smile was kind as he placed a comforting hand on my shoulder, “We know how powerful your magic is, but we do not know how to control it. It is incredibly important that we learn before anything… happens.”

“Like what?” I asked, looking up at him, but his eyes were suddenly far away, focusing on the still lit fireplace.

“Nothing. It is only a precaution.” He smiled, dragging his eyes back to me, “However, before you start, I believe someone is waiting to see you.”

~~~

When I reached the hospital wing, the healer working told me they had already moved Maeteo back to his room. I groaned internally, mainly due to the fact that it had taken me forty-five minutes of standing outside the hospital wing, pacing back and forth, and talking to myself, to get the courage to go inside in the first place.

Gracie walked with me towards the Eastern wing where her room was and hugged me tightly before I bid her goodbye. She disappeared into her room and closed the door with a soft click, and suddenly I was alone again. Reality hitting me like a slap in the face.

My shoes squeaked on the marble floor as I walked through the shockingly empty Eastern wing. It was only shortly after dinner, so I assumed most of the castle staff would still be working downstairs in the dining room and kitchens, or getting their own meals, but the eerie silence as I moved through the hallways made my skin crawl. I was grateful that I had changed out of the pyjamas Gracie had picked out for me, but the thin material of my short-sleeved shirt and trousers did almost nothing against the wind that ripped through the cracks in the windowframes.

The clouds were still rolling in. Darkening the skyline and threatening a storm any day, the lingering humidity warring with the jarring winds.

Maeteo’s bedroom door was cracked open slightly when I reached it. I paused, my hand on the handle and peered through the crack into the dark room. I could not see anything past the candle lit on the small table by his bed, and disappointment flooded my body.

Selfishly, I had been hoping that I could see him from here. Hoping that I could see he was alive without having to enter the room.

Shaking myself, I sucked a breath in through my teeth and pushed the door open slowly. The weight of it shockingly heavy compared to the lighter doors in my chambers. It took a minute for my eyes to adjust to the dark conditions in the room, but I was not surprised to find it looked shockingly like the rest of the rooms in this part of the castle; Gracie’s included.

The carpet under my feet was dark, and the wooden furniture scattered around the room was enough to make the place feel comfortable, but not overcrowded. The heavy curtains were pulled closed, but the wind outside rattled the window frames. The bed sheets were a deep red, and only pulled up to a sleeping Maeteo’s waist.

My heart leaped into my throat at the sight of him.

Bandages were wrapped tightly across his stomach and around both of his shoulders. His arms were bare but were covered in a thick, white cream of some kind. He had his head turned away from me, and his breathing was slow and deep. He looked peaceful, at least. I stepped farther into the room, my heart racing in my chest and the unwelcome feeling of burning rising from my stomach again.

I swallowed, trying my hardest to will away the burning, when something next to Maeteo’s bed moved, and stopped me in my tracks. My eyes shot up and met Cyrus’s in surprise.

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