Kath had managed to get ready at Leah's house, after all, Rebellion was nowhere fancy, some eyeliner and black jeans would do the trick. Besides, it was nice to finally have at least one of her human friends know what she was.
When they arrived, Sam was already there. He was sitting with Jonathan or at least someone posing as him. When the girls spotted him through the window, Kath raised a brow. "I thought you said he went home?" She asked. Leah scanned the figure in the bar knowing fully well that it couldn't be Jehovah. She was looking for any kind of imperfection at all, then she spotted it. The iron ring he was tapping on the glass in his hand – Deploma's ring. Leah's fingers curled around Katherine's forearm, her nails digging into her skin painfully.
"That's not him," her voice was soft and fearful, not for herself but for the others involved in this. For Deploma to be appearing as Jay, he had to have him. And for him to be coming to such a social human setting meant that he was involving Kath and Sam in whatever evil plan he had. "It's the king," Katherine turned to her, gripping her shoulders.
"We don't have to go in Leah," But she shook herself free.
"No. He has Jonny," Her eyes narrowed on the man in the window. The way that he laughed and tipped back his head arrogantly, the way that he sat slouched and overconfident – he wasn't even trying to look like him. "We play his game. See what he wants," Reluctantly, Katherine nodded and opened the door for Leah to carefully slip through.
The second that the men spotted them, Sam jumped to his feet to greet Katherine, 'Jonathan' just scanned her up and down. Deciding to take the lead, she walked past the two, Kath's eyes never leaving her. She threw herself down on the couch beside the king who threw his arm around her, pulling her close. Even though he was in Jehovah's body, the chill of his ring snaking up and down her arm made her queasy. "Jonny!" Kath gushed as she took a seat beside Sam on the opposite couch. "I didn't know you were coming," Leah watched as her entire body went into defence mode, even though all she saw was the convincing façade of Jehovah's human form before her. For a moment, she wondered what she would do if she saw the kings true face.
"I had reason to," He nuzzled his nose into the crook of Leah's neck smirking at the couple. Jehovah would never touch her in such a way in public! It took every ounce of her will not to cry out in fear and back against the wall to catch her breath. She simply closed her eyes. It's Jonathan. It's Jonathan. Not him. She chanted to herself. Slowly, she began to relax.
"I didn't know you two were an item now!" Sam beamed – simple happy for his friend, little did he know that he had just revealed that what Leana and Jehovah had going on had been brewing for a while. "Guess all it took was for the right man to get you over that fear of yours eh Leah," Sam laughed – already drunk. Kath froze as she elbowed him in the ribs knowing full well that the man who had caused that fear was now running his hands down Leah's leg tantalisingly gentle. When Sam revealed that crucial information. She felt Deploma smile against her skin, his hand gripping her thigh. Fear shot through her. Leah bounced to her feet.
"I should go," She stammered, eyeing for Kath to play along.
"My darling, you shouldn't walk around the city alone. You never know what could happen," He wasn't even trying to act like Jonathan! It was pathetic. At this, Katherine jumped to her feet.
"We should all walk her to the stop!" She gushed, dragging Sam to his feet causing him to stumble. With a nod to Kath, Leah reluctantly linked arms with Deploma and began to lead him outside, the loud guitar and drums of the club dying out as they walked further and further down the street.
Turning down an ally, Leah smiled up at the man on her arm and assured him that it was a shortcut. Not wanting to break his illusion, the king followed. As did Kath dragging Sam not three paces behind them.
Leah took one last glance down the ally to make sure that they were far enough away to not be noticed by any passer-by's and threw Deploma into the graffitied wall harshly causing him to hiss. Leah kicked up her skirt and whipped the knife from her thigh in a movement so swift that Sam's eyes could barely follow it as she pressed it against the kings throat, growling in his face. "Leah the fuck!" Sam yelled but Kath placed a firm hand on his chest to warn him to stay back. The king only smirked, causing Leah to press the tip harder against his flesh, allowing a single sleek line of blood to slide down his neck. He hissed in response as if he enjoyed the sensation.
"I should have known that I couldn't trick you, Lea," He murmured before Leah kicked him hard in the chest causing him to fall to the rain-soaked floor. She had never felt power like this. The king bleeding at her knees, at her mercy, her gown billowing around her ankles as she watched the reality of the situation darken in his eyes, but it didn't.
"Take it off," She growled through gritted teeth, it sickened her to see him in that body. The king stood, holding his arms out and bowing mockingly.
"As you wish," Pulling a small bottle from his jacket pocket, he tipped the contents down his throat. As he did so, Katherine curled herself into Sam's arms. His hair lengthened and turned from inky black to blood red, his skin darkening slightly, that glint of cruelty and madness returning to his now ruby eyes. Crimson wings folded outwards in a magnificent display. Stretching his neck, his eyes went to Kath. Leah knew that look all too well. She watched as Kath shivered, Sam's arms wrapping tighter around her as he shifted her to almost place himself between the two.
"I thought you believed humans to be beneath us," Leah sighed as she rolled her eyes, trying to down-play the extremely dangerous tension surrounding them. His eyes never left the pretty blonde as he grinned menacingly.
"Of course, but they are not without their uses," He snarled. Sam's fists curled as he pulled her behind him, diverting the king's attention.
"Touch her and I'll…"
"Where is he?" Leah interrupted, trying her best to prevent Sam from getting himself killed. Deploma's attention was now back on Leah as he approached her, dragging a tender hand down her exposed hand.
"He's safe, I promise," In response, Leah pressed the dagger against his wrist. One wrong move and he was dead. She would love to kill him but if he had Jehovah there was a good chance that if he was gone, there would be no one to tell her where he was so she repressed the urge.
"Liar," Leah whispered shakily as she tried her best not to let herself cry, looking up into his eyes as tears welled in her own.
"You know better than anyone that I am no liar," The king purred in her face. At this point, she realised that the tables had turned, he had the control, dangling the noose around Jehovah's neck. The king raised his hand and stroked her neck gently, her fingers falling limp around the hilt of her knife causing it to clatter to the floor. "You know, all he does is call your name," The tears began to fall as Katherine pushed beside Sam to listen to the story. Making his way around to the front of her, the king gripped her neck, digging his nails into her tender flesh and forcing her to look at him. Sam tensed once again but this time understood that it was best not to test this deadly, otherworldly stranger. "He betrayed you, Lea," He told her softly. "Sold you out to that bitch's daughter," one common ground between herself and the king was they both hated Zaria Aerin with a burning passion for what she did to Ariana. Even though Deploma never showed his grief on the outside, Leah knew that there was a pit where his heart should be that mourned his mother every day.
"You're wrong!" Leah cried out, his grip only tightening on her throat.
"I am no liar!" He yelled in her face. Her neck would surely be bruised. Leah was crying at this point. His hand slipped from her throat as she dropped to her knees, bringing her hands to her cheeks, completely giving up on appearing strong. Deploma began to dig in his pocket, whipping out a crumpled parchment. "Here," He spat, throwing the paper before her, which she took shakily. "Have your proof," The king folded his arms and looked away. Through her tears, Leah's eyes scanned the letter, handwritten by Elixibur herself, she wasn't quite sure how the king could bare to even interact with her.
Dearest Deploma,
Very informal, Leah thought. Strange.
It would seem that forbidden romance is a curse linked with your position of Black Knight.
How dare she. That whore. Leah's fingers curled against the paper.
It would seem that my knight is quite the charmer. You of all people know the punishment for this crime; send Leana Payne to meet with her maker and we will move forward. I will finish what my mother started. The Payne's will be gone for good.
Elixibur Aerin.
Leana's bloodshot eyes looked up to the man before her. He was here to kill her, she knew it. She inhaled, her breath shaking. 'I'm coming father' she thought as she placed her thin hands on the floor in the frozen puddles. "If you're going to kill me, I beg you, if you ever loved me, make it swift,"
"No!" Kath screamed as she tried to lunge for her friend but Sam's hands were too fast, wrapping around her middle and pulling her to him. As much as he loved Leah, he would not allow Katherine to die for her. The king barely looked in her direction before he knelt before the broken woman. She always told herself that she would never kneel for him, yet here she was, brought to her knees and begging for death.
"Kill me…" Leah cried. "Please, just kill me," The king took her chin tenderly in his warm fingers, pulling her face up to meet his gaze.
"Shh, my darling," he cooed the way a husband would console a crying wife. He gently stroked the side of her face which only caused her to cry more. "I'm not going to kill you," he promised but his smile turned dark. "I'm here to offer you a bargain," This was it; this was where she sold herself to him forever. The king stood, helping her to her feet as the two humans watched from the side-lines, Kath significantly calmer now that he had assured her that he wasn't going to harm her. Once he was sure that she would stay standing without support, he reached into his pocket once more, this time pulling out an all too familiar ring.
The simple token brought back so many memories. The ring was a simple silver band with a large, glimmering sapphire in the centre, runes in a dead fey language carved all around the band. Her engagement ring. Her heart convulsed at the sight of it. Deploma held it up. "The last time I presented this, you said yes," He began. In her head, she wanted to interrupt him and remind him exactly why she had delivered it back to his chambers in the middle of the night for him to find when he woke, but she simply didn't have the energy. "I present it again and this time with a deal," He stepped closer. "Marry me and I will make sure that no harm comes to that boy," Katherine yelped in the background, crying into Sam's chest, his own face plastered with pure horror. Leana looked up into his eyes.
"I come with you, I marry you, I do whatever you say," She listed as he listened to her conditions. "And Jehovah lives," He took her shaking hand in his own, placing it over his own calm heart.
"I have never lied to you," Which was true enough, he hadn't. Leah inhaled.
"I'll do it," A grin came over him as he slipped the ring back onto her finger. It felt a little tight. Pressing a kiss to her trembling lips he smiled.
"I shall await your arrival before sunrise then," he held his arms out to address even the terrified, shaking humans blocking the exit of the ally as Leah began to cry again silently, not even turning to face him. "Cheer up my dear!" He yelled with a tune to his voice. "It's all extravagant jewels and gown fit for a queen from now on," His eyes glowed as he tipped back the glamour from his pocket, once again taking Jehovah's human form. "Consider it a promotion," And with that, he slipped back out to the bustling streets of Manchester.
Leah cried and cried for god knows how long until Katherine tried to approach her from behind.
Lea…" She stopped. "Leana?" The woman didn't respond, even to her true name. Sam still remained silent.
"That, was the bravest thing I've ever seen," A deep voice caught the attention of everyone in the ally. Katherine's eyes flooded with fear, Sam looked as if he was going to faint from being overwhelmed. Leah's fists just curled at her sides.
"You," She spat. Violently twisting to scowl at him. Dronolas' eyes filled with instant regret as she stormed over, grabbing the knife from the floor, and pinning him to the bricks. "Give me one reason why I shouldn't kill you right now," The coloured man held his hands up defensively, his eyes even glancing at the two humans behind his attacker.
"She cursed him!" Dronolas yelled squeezing his eyes shut as the knife threatened to cut into his throat. "The bitch cursed him and forced him to betray you," Leah lowered the knife and stood back. "He renounced his title, Leana," Somehow, him using her name made her trust him more than she normally would have. "He loves you," Leah's trembling fingers began to loosen on the handle of the dagger. She turned, not daring to look at the humans who had just witnessed their quiet and timid friend threaten to slit another mans throat. Dronolas shifted, looking away in shame. "I left too," Leah lifted her gaze in shock. "I didn't do it for you. I did it for him," That was fair, she was nothing to him. The man's fists balled at his sides as his jaw twitched in anger as he recalled the memory. He was so intimidating in that moment that Sam further curled his arm around Kath – both still speechless from the whole ordeal. "I've seen her do all manor of things. Touch him, taunt him, threaten him, but never has she taken away his will," The thought of that witch's soft, unworked hands over him made Leah's blood boil.
Her tear-soaked eyes met her two human friends who now cowered at her gaze. "Tell him, Kath," She begged for she knew that if she tried to explain herself, she would crumple into a bumbling mess of tears and hyperventilation.
"You knew?" Sam yelled, his voice even cracking from the anger behind the statement, Leah saw his fingers curl a little tighter around her arm. She nodded turning her face not to look him in the eyes; she couldn't bear to face the betrayal in his eyes.
"Sam…" She muttered, taking his arm with her free hand and looking to Leah who was resisting every urge in her body to burst into tears. "I don't think were going to see either of them again," At this Leah shook her head, finally letting a single tear slip out.
"No," She told them firmly, her whole body shook. "I will see you again. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, maybe not even this decade but one day I'll get Jonathan out of there and we'll run back to you," Katherine was crying now as well. Dronolas turned his head away, he hated to see women cry. All that he could think of was what if that were his sister or his mother. He would kill the man that caused the tears to fall.
"The sun will rise in mere hours," Leah murmured almost to herself.
"I'll go with you," her lovers friend offered, stepping forward. At first she was going to refuse him, though, after seeing the sincerity in his eyes that he simply didn't want her to be alone, she nodded silently.