Tie It With a Ribbon

“Alena, there’s something I really want to ask you,” Zanzibar murmured, kissing me gently as we sat on our rock throne.

“What’s that?” I mumbled, burying my face in his warm chest.

“Do you think that there will come a time when you can honestly say you are irrevocably in love with me?” He smiled sheepishly.

“I know it’ll happen, especially at this rate,” I whispered, kissing his cheek softly. “But I think I may need to get home soon, considering the Alexandros situation.”

He nodded, taking my hand and leading me away from our haven. We walked in blissful silence for a few moments before he said, “Do you really think I’m a Super Dad?”

I smiled, leaning against him as we walked through the calm forest in the dead of night. “Of course I do. You’re just a big kid yourself, like the rest of your family,” I teased, wrapping my arms around his waist and grinning as he pressed his lips to the top of my head, a small smile forming.

“Do you like kids?” he murmured, his arm clung casually over my shoulders.

I smiled. “Yes. Someday I should like to have a son.”

“Me, too.” He stopped walking as we approached the edge of the woods, and he twirled me into his arms to kiss me softly. “And someday I should like to say good night without having to say goodbye.”

I held him tightly for a moment, but then he tensed. “What’s wrong?” I whispered, glancing around the pitch-black forest.

“Get back,” he whispered in response, managing to slip out of my arms. He pushed me behind him, growling deep in his throat and straightening his back defensively.

I almost questioned him, but then I heard a twig snap. I relaxed, knowing that it was not a lion (They were far too graceful to allow even the smallest noise). Placing a hand on his shoulder, I tried to tell him it was okay.

But then the Aquilan guards dropped to the ground, surrounding us entirely, with Alexndros at the front. I scowled at him, and Zanzibar looked absolutely menacing as he showed his anger so openly.

“Alexandoros, I believe I have told you the terms!” Zanzibar snapped, trying to watch all of the guards at once. He reached his hand out, as if protecting me from my protectors. “Step out of the way now, or I will force you to step down.”

“Do not listen to the lion; we know they cannot be trusted,” Alexandros told his men. “Step away from our Queen.”

“She is not your Queen—Cadence is!” he screamed, his fists trembling with rage as he forced himself to stay put. I reached out and put my hand on his shoulder.

“Zanzibar, it’s okay,” I whispered, sighing softly. “I will see you tomorrow, alright?”

He nodded begrudgingly, not once removing his eyes from my personal guard. I refrained from kissing him good night, but he did reach out and catch my hand, causing the Royal Guardians step forward. Zanzibar ignored them, looking into my eyes with the intensity that caused me to blush even before his lips pressed to my palm. He closed my hand into a fist, as if to trap the gesture. I smiled, forcing myself to turn towards Alexandros.

“You will leave him be—all of you.”

He grabbed my wrist roughly, and I cried out as I tried to pull myself out of his grasp. I heard Zanzibar raving, but when he tried to step forward he was tackled to the ground with death threats being hurled into his face.

“Zanzibar!” I shouted, trying desperately to shake myself free of the pest, but it was to no avail.

“Let go of her!” he roared, clawing as he tried to break free.

Within seconds the forest was full of Imperial Guards, and my own soldiers backed down. Zanzibar pushed himself to his feet, hurling every profane word he knew at Alexandros as I kicked and screamed at him to release me. Zanzibar tried to run to me, but, to my surprise, his guards held him back. Alexandros pulled me away, and all I could do was reach out and try to catch the hand my fiancé held out for me to grasp. Our fingers grazed before we were both jerked away in opposite directions.

I heard a lion roar as I was pulled onto my land, and I knew the deep voice well enough to cry out in desperation, the shrill cry of a miserable eagle that had never learned to sing of anything other than hopelessness and tragedy.

I bit back curses as Alexandros forced me into my bedroom, positioning two guards at my balcony and himself at my door. He insisted that I would not leave my bedroom for two weeks, which would surely be enough time for me to recover from “the spell the lion has so obviously casted” onto me. He had then slammed my bedroom door behind me, demanding that I go to bed.

I had thrown the word “treason” at him, but he had ignored me completely. A quick glance out the window allowed me to see that my lion was no longer waiting for me by the forest’s edge, and I bit my lip before crawling under the covers of my bed, clutching the talon with a trembling hand as I forced myself to fall into a dreamless sleep.