Jehovah was aware before he opened his eyes. The first thing that he noticed was the broken ribs on his right side. Every time he inhaled, pain shot through his body as his broken bones jabbed him in all of his major organs. The second was when he tried to open his eyes, one squeezing before he even opened it causing him to hiss in pain then groaning at the rib stabbing. Slowly, he opened his good eye to see a beautiful young woman with golden hair cleaning his forehead. Jehovah identified her as the maid, Marion, that had come to warn Leana that the king was looking for her. With a coy smile, the woman turned her head to face the old banshee who came into view behind her. "Stay still, boy," She warned. "He really did a number on you," Jehovah rolled his eyes. For a moment, he wondered who would actually win in a dual if they were to fight fairly and he wasn't restrained in a dungeon. Obediently, he stilled on the table, lifting his hand to rest on his stomach as the pretty woman went back to cleaning his face.
He wasn't sure how long he had been lying there when a familiar voice broke the quiet mumblings of the kitchen. "I'll kill the bastard!" Keomie yelled as her shoes clicked on the stone floor. Fearing for his own life, Jay began to try to shift up to look at her, but before he got further than chest height from the table, he yelled and fell back down, Marion making a fuss over him as he dropped. "Lock her door," Keomie ordered the small pixie girl with a pointed finger. "Marion," The woman looked up. "Don't let him leave his rooms, drug him if you have to," The woman nodded, giving Jay another sweet smile making him realise that there was a little more about the young woman than he wanted to think about. The nymph dragged a chair up as two sets of feet scuttled out of the room presumably to complete their assigned tasks. "Don't worry," Keomie assured Jay. "She's an apothecary's daughter. Asshole thinks he has some medical problem," She laughed as best as she could. The thought of Marion poisoning the man repeatedly made him smile. Keomie silenced her laugh before scanning her eyes down his broken and bruised body. "I didn't know you were in the dining room," He waved his hand as best he could, dismissing her apology.
"It's fucked," He murmured, closing his eye again to rest, finally feeling a little more relaxed knowing that Leana was safely locked in her room. He felt Keomie's gentle finger carefully push strands of hair away from his wound over his eye that he was still yet to see. "I can fix this," She muttered, almost to herself. Next to him, he heard her stand, scuttle around for a moment before her hand gripped his arm. He raised his brow knowing full well that she was restraining him, before something cold touched his face and stung. He jumped but her hand held him firm and yelled baring his teeth to the women in the room. "Keep still, you big baby," Keomie moaned. He growled in response but stilled, grinding his teeth through the pain. Eventually, she ceased poking and prodding him to wrap a bandage over his face, trapping in the salve that she had used. Then, moving down to his ribs, she pulled it back into place. He could feel the crunch from inside his body and groaned. Then, she applied some other concoction that he couldn't even begin to identify and wrapped his lower body just as she had his face with the help of Annette.
Satisfied with her work, she tapped him on the shoulder causing him to finally open his good eye. "You want to sit up?" Jay nodded as best he could, his brain still racked with pain he wasn't sure he'd be able to form words as he reordered his thoughts. Annette and Keomie both wrapped their arms around his shoulders and pulled him into a sitting position. Before he could even raise a hand to his banging head, a wooden bowl was pushed into his face.
"Eat. Queen's orders," the banshee barked, handing him a small spoon. 'Queen'. It sounded like a title of Leana's worth for sure. He smiled a little under the shadow of his shaggy hair which he noticed was still wet. Had they bathed him fully? His cheeks flushed red but he soon got over his embarrassment and lifted the spoon to his lips. Keomie said nothing, only sat beside the table where Jehovah was perched and made sure that he gulped down every mouthful of the broth. As he ate, Marion returned with a disturbed gown where she had been pawed at, nodding with a smile to Keomie that he was out for the night. Keomie sighed in relief. A moment later, the little pixie girl came rushing back in, handing the iron key to the nymph which she tucked into her pocket; he didn't know her dress had pockets.
Now that he had gotten a good look at her, he noticed that she was turning her face slightly away from him. He squinted. Setting down the bowl, he tried his best to edge off the table, moaning as his feet took the bulk of his weight but he remained upright. At his sudden movement, Keomie stood to face him but said nothing as he raised a hand to her cheek, turning her to view the damage. His fist curled at his side as he scanned the reddening of her skin on her left cheek. He didn't have to ask before she broke into distressed babblings. "When he got back he questioned me. When he found out I knew he hit me," The woman looked down, raising her own hand to touch her cheek, brushing him away. "He hasn't hit me since he was seventeen," She was choking back tears now as she recalled the first time he had raised his hand to her. It was after what he had done to Leana, filled with fury, she had broken into his chambers to chew him out but the second she raised her voice, he struck her, barking at her not to speak to her superiors in such a way.
The two stood in silence, Jay not daring to interrupt her painful memory. Annette's hand on his shoulder breaking both of them from their intense moment. "There's a bed for you in the tower, hope you don't mind sleeping in a room full of women," Jay jumped around, causing his ribs to explode him pain but he gritted through it long enough to protest.
"No!" He yelled. "I'm going to see her," He pushed past the old woman and made a b-line for the door to the servants passages as Annette protested but it was Keomie that caught his attention. "You're going to need this," She told him, whipping the key out of her pocket, extending it out to him. With a slight tug at the side of his mouth, Jay took the key, tucking it into his own pant pocket before making his way carefully up the stairs.
He was halfway down the passage when he realised that he was completely exposed from the waist up. Scanning the passages on his way and their seemingly endless span of other rooms, he eventually came across a laundry room. Stalking inside, he sieved through the clothes eventually pulling out a white shirt that undoubtedly belonged to Deploma. Shivering, he threw it over his head and yanked it down over his body. On his way out, he spotted a pile of towels which he grabbed and held to his chest to look less suspicious wandering the halls between the passages and Leana's room.
The journey was mostly undisturbed. Due to the little number of people living in the palace, there were few servants – he had never met any other than Annette, Lacy and Marion. From what he could assume, the guests of the crown brought their own servants who slept separate from the main residents.
He reached her door without any disturbance but when he reached the soon-to-be queen's rooms, he froze. What would she think of him after what he did. No, he couldn't think like that. He reached into his pocket, pulling out the key and unlocking the door. When he entered, she didn't even stir.
Leana stood in the window, not facing the door. From behind, he dropped the towels to the floor. She looked like a queen. Her violet hair cascading down her back, her gown, which she had changed into since he saw her briefly in the dungeons, billowing around her, drifting in the slight draft he had let in. The second that she heard him, she turned. For a moment, they did nothing she only stared at him, revelling in the fact that he was alive at all. His skin was still pale, his lips chapped, not to mention the horrid gash down his face but he was alive. Lifting her skirts, she ran for him, throwing herself into him. His body fell back from the impact, crashing against the closed door, he groaned in pain, baring his teeth. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Leana gasped as she tried to pull herself away from him but before she could even attempt, his arms had wrapped around her back, fingers clutching the fabric, his face nuzzling itself in her mane of hair. He inhaled her scent, noticing that she had applied that same perfume that he had found on her vanity when he had first infiltrated that damn court.
"Stupid, stupid woman!" He growled into her hair, but his arms only tightened. "You should have run!" He hissed.
"I know… I know," She gushed as he felt the wetness through his shirt as she cried into his chest. After an incomprehensible amount of time, Leana leaned up, catching his lips with her own but he raised his hands to gently push her shoulders away.
"We can't!" He hissed but she only turned her head, walking back towards the window.
"I am the queen, I can do whatever I want," She dismissed arrogantly.
"Even infidelity?" Jay asked, slowly following her to the window with a smile and a raised brow. He stood behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist as she leaned back onto his shoulder.
"Deploma is not stupid. He most likely thinks that allowing me this simple pleasure will keep me off his case for opening his own bed," Jay snorted before burying his own face in her curls. "Not that I care, he can fuck all of Avalon if he so wishes," She turned to face him attempting to throw her arms around his neck however, her reddened and bloodstained hand caught his attention. Grasping her right wrist in mid-air, he held it out in front of her.
"The truth," He demanded, his eyes darkened as a growl rolled in his chest. Leana looked confused for a moment, before she laughed and snatched her hand away, walking over to the bed.
"Oh," She laughed. "I hit him," A breath left Jay's throat as he approached her, placing his hand against the pole of the bed, trapping her between himself and the sheets behind her. He smiled.
"You hit him?" he asked with a raised brow somehow believing that it was simply too good to be true. Leana lifted her hand and curled her fingers flashing the sapphire ring.
"This thing comes in handy I suppose,". The two laughed at the thought of this tiny woman besting that beast that was Deploma. Eventually, Jay's face shifted. The reality of the situation set in, here he was, with the soon-to-be Unseelie queen mere inches from his own body, her heart racing in her chest, he could hear it from where he stood. "You're Unseelie now then?" Leana asked with a devilish grin as she raised a hand, gently stroking her nails against his shoulder. Even through the cotton, his knees threatened to give in on him.
"It would seem that I am," He dipped his head and smirked. "Majesty," She smiled as she watched him bow and rise back up to face her.
"You would bow to me?" She asked with a raised brow. A seriousness flooded his face as he slowly lowered himself to his knee before her, looking up as she watched him in amazement. The pain from his ribs crippled him though he gave it no notice. He took hold of her ringed hand tenderly.
"Leana, ever since I met you, even as a human, I knew that I would never bow to another again," It was true, not that he had ever sincerely bowed to Elixibur but ever since he had met Leah, he hadn't even dreamt of doing it even through a lie. "After all," He began again, lifting her hand to his lips and kissing her gently. "You are soon to be my queen," when he dropped her hand, he took her ankles in his hands and began to drag them up her legs under the large dress. Leana shuddered and leaned back against the post, throwing her head back causing her chest to thrust out.
"Jay," She gasped running her fingers through her hair. "You're injured," Jay only turned his gentle caresses into a grasp as he pulled himself slightly upwards.
"Wicked woman to use my own reasons against me," He stood, intending to kiss her against the post though, as if proving her point, he groaned in pain, leaning against the wood above her head to steady himself.
"See!" She gushed, moving out from under him and helping him to lay down on the bed which he plonked down onto with a grunt.
Gathering her many skirts, she settled beside him, curling her body into the curve of his. "Let's kill him," Leana murmured which caused every cell in his body to stiffen. He felt her nails caress circles into his chest through the thin cotton. "We could do it together. Make him wish he'd never crossed us," There was a slight snarl to her voice as Jay gulped. The idea of the queen, this goddess that laid so soundly in his arms like a child, would be capable of murdering her husband in a bloody and ferocious mess chilled him to the bone – even if he did deserve it.
He tenderly took her hand in his own and curled his fingers gently around hers, the sapphire ring cold against his skin. "No," He hushed into her hair. "We wouldn't get far," Leana groaned like a child next to him – or like an assassin told that she can't kill her assailant. "Hush darling," He cooed, pulling her in tighter, wrapping her arms around her. "We bide our time," The two remained nuzzled together for a while, unsure of how much time had passed until Leana began tracing idol symbols on his shoulder again.
"I'm going to make this marriage hell," She declared as a small smile pricked at the corners of Jehovah's mouth.
"I wouldn't expect anything less,"