THE KING'S DESIRE

🦋𓆙ℂℍ𝔸ℙ𝕋𝔼ℝ 22𓆙🦋

Her father reached for her hand gripping it tightly " Flora," he said. But she couldn't hear, she could only see her name fall from his lips.

That voice, the gnawing, sickly sweet feminine voice had come to haunt her. The goddess, she was calling her.

No, this wasn't the goddess, this was someone else. The goddess wouldn't be annoying but this person was, the more they called the more on edge their voice seemed.  Flora wished the king would come to save her. He was the only person she knew who could.

For the first time, she knew the importance of telling him everything. 

" Call him," she begged, gripping her father's trousers. She sank to her knees when she saw the refusal in his eyes and crawled to her mother with tear-filled eyes. " Call him mother, please,"

" Please," 

The answer was no, she should've known better than to ask her mother for anything. That woman, that evil woman never cared about her but, how could someone be so selfish? Slowly she felt the energy from her body drain as she slumped against her mother's leg.

So this is it, she thought. Not the end but the beginning of a tire-filled draining night. Oh how much she wished she could push herself away from her mother, and far away from her family.

But she was stuck, her body felt heavy, and her lungs felt numb. Everything was wrong, it was all too much.

With droopy eyelids she prepared herself for a nap, one she probably wouldn't wake from. The loud sound of a door slamming against the wall caused her to shudder and widen her eyes. It was him, Atticus had finally come to save her but could he?

The voice was as loud as ever and though she could hear his boots stomping on the floor she couldn't turn to see him.

When he looked over and spotted her gently lying on her mother's lap his heart sank. Hearing her heartbeat wasn't enough not when he could feel the unusual coolness and thick presence of death around the room.

It paralyzed him, his body stuck in place. "Is this the end?" he asked the chilling voice still calling her name. It answered, the temperature falling even lower in the room. It was cruel, cruel to let him watch her slump unnaturally on her mother's leg.

No, not as cruel as a mother shoving her dying child from her.

He tried cursing her name but failed, his lips sealed by the strong presence around them.

This was a fairytale, there was no guarantee that she would be waking up from a deep sleep. She'd just die. It doesn't matter how special of a creation you are, you'd just be replaced by something else. That's balance.

That is how the rest of them had made it.

His muscles grew tight and numb as Fauna watched him. Her eyes turned green just as the color of her skin took the color of the most fertile soil on the land tiny green leaves sprouted from her skin. She was nature in itself.

Looking around he spotted Gerald and his wife sporting the same look, but not her. No, Flora was on fire. Red fire that began slowly spreading across the room burning everything but her family in sight.

It was approaching him but he wasn't scared, he could never be scared of anything she did. Her flames could kill but he didn't care, he'd let them engulf him, swallow him whole as long as he could be near her.

He wouldn't give up on someone he loved, he wouldn't be like the people of his past, people of her past. No, he would be different. She needed saving and he'd do everything in his power to make sure she got it.

His tight limbs slackened as the flames approached him. He wasn't sure if they'd all die together but he knew that if given the choice to save save everyone but her or save her and let the rest perish. He would save her. Without a doubt.

The red flames licked at his skin allowing him to not be held captive to the dark energy. But the more it saved him, the more her skin resembled the great active volcanos of the land. It was cracked with red seeping through. She was solidifying, her body slowly becoming stone.

He rushed to her and laid his hands against her cheeks, " Flora, look at me" his eyes frantically searched her for any sign of life. Any sign that she was beginning to get better. A harsh breath escaped her lips at the sound of his desperation. " We're getting married remember?  We're still supposed to get married. You're to be my queen,"

She opened her mouth but could not speak, her spirit felt like it was hovering over the empty shell of her body but Flora knew she was still there. She could do this. Again, she tried to speak as he cradled her head to his chest. The calling had stopped but her skin remained the same. Stone.

"Atticus," she tried whispering under her breath as the hand of the red-headed goddess reached for her soul. " I should not give you a chance," she whispered hoarsely. " Not after all that you have done, but he deserves better, he does not deserve to suffer the same fate, but he has not changed,"

Flora watched him with wide eyes as she listened and watched his face contort in sadness. The redness from her skin disappeared after his tears coated her skin. But no, to him she wasn't getting any better. To him, her hardening meant one thing. It meant that she wasn't coming back.

He watched in horror as the cracks on her skin deepened and listened to the sounds of her fragile body breaking apart.

His eyes searched the room and watched as everyone else went back to normal, watched as everyone returned to the way they were before but not her. Not the only person he wished would go back to normal.

Her left hand, the room watched in horror as her first finger broke apart from her body and shattered on the floor.  " What's happening?" he asked her father sharply with the threat of endless pain laced in his voice. Gerald who had never truly been subjected to the king's harshness held his breath as he searched his brain for an answer that would satisfy the king's curiosity.

He knew that this would not be Flora's end. So why didn't the king?

"If you do not answer me this instant, I promise you and your entire family the most inhumane death possible," the threat lingered in the air before her mother spoke up.

" My king, she isn't gone," the words held no explanation, just edged him on and brought out his anger towards them. " She should be back in her bath, that's where we took her. If she wasn't so fuckng fragile then maybe you wouldn't worry about her this much. She might be my child but she is nothing like us. Weak, and distasteful, "

The shattering of the last part of her body brought his eyes back to her quickly and before he could process he was on his feet making his way out the room. His head swung around right before he exited "Don't you dare speak of my wife that way again.  You're the future queen.  If you'd like to keep your life I'd recommend shutting the fuck up. Because I can and will make an example of you. It's simply a matter of when,"

The color drained from her face as he rushed into the hallway curing himself for restricting teleportation magic down there. A fault on his part indeed.

I have no excuses, I'm lazy and could not be bothered to write. Please,  I beg of y'all. Don't hate me. I'm just a girl 😭. I hope you enjoyed the chapter and thank you for reading. Love you ❤️

P.S the photo is a hint 😉