A/N: I forgot to say this at the start, but I don't own. There. I said... er.. wrote it! Now can you, whoever you are, stop PMing me about it?! It really gets annoying after a while! Anyway, sorry this is late, I just failed the first test I have ever failed. Period. And it was French, in which I am a straight A+ student. Sad, I know.
"My lady." The whisper of a handmaiden came through the thin divider in the Surface Lord's quarters, where Queen Holly and Lord Artemis were sleeping. Holly opened her eyes.
"Yes?" She asked.
"It is time." The maid said. Holly quickly slipped out from under Artemis's arm, where it was wrapped around her gently, and left her lover's room. The maid handed her a shift, which she donned, then they walked down to the dungeons of the palace. As she left the room, Artemis shifted, trying to wrap his other arm around his lover, but the arm didn't find her. Hs blue eyes snapped open.
When they reached the dungeons, the Surface guard tried to prevent their entry.
"My… my queen!" He stuttered. "We did not expect you at such a late hour."
"Well, I am here." She said. "And I demand you pen this door."
"Your Majesty, the Lord Artemis does not wish you to enter." He said, a little nervously.
"Well, this is my palace, so these are my rules. The Surface Lord answers to me in this palace."
"Very… Very well, my lady." He opened the door to the dungeons. "The cell you are looking for is over there." He pulled the keys off a hook in the corner, and opened the cell door. In the cell, a small, huddled shape at the corner looked up through her long, now dirty tresses of red hair. Holly marched in, her head held high.
"Sister." She addressed the girl in the corner. "Stand." The girl did as she was instructed.
"What do you want?" She asks the question with venom. "Whore." She muttered, under her breath.
"I want to know something." She said. "I want to know why."
"Why what?" Princess Lily looked at her sister, her brown eyes filled with venom.
"Why do you hate me? Why are you so against the Surface? Why did you seduce our brother? Why did you kill our father?" It was a hefty accusation. Lily's eyes widened.
"Firstly, I hate you because you were the one always getting the attention. You were our father's favourite, you're prettier than me, you are more sporty, you are more intelligent. You were born lucky. I was lucky to be born." Holly raised an eyebrow. "Secondly, I'm so against the Surface, because I never went. You were the one to always go on diplomatic trips with our father to the Surface."
"And…?"Holly didn't see the significance of this.
"And so I never went there, and I don't understand why you all thought it was such a great place. I thought nothing was as great as the splendour of the People." She said. "I seduced our brother because… Because I love him. I was made to serve him. I did everything, everything, for him! I give him pleasure, which in turn pleasures me."
"Wrong. You seduced him to get to the throne!" Holly replied, enraged and disgusted. "You kiss, but it isn't a promise, not like Mum taught me."
"I barely knew our mother! And lastly, I didn't kill our father. Why would I do something like that?"
"Because you are a traitor!" Holly seethed. "How dare you lie about it?"
"I did not kill our father!" Lily insisted.
"I cannot spend one more moment in your presence, lying scum." With that, Holly turned on her heel and left.
"Wait!" Lily called. "Fowl will figure it out. He find out that you're only pretending to love him for power! Then, he'll see you as the lying whore you really are!" Holly stopped, but kept her back turned.
"Who ever said that I was pretending to love him?" She said. Lily was silenced by this. Her sister, whom she had thought was cold and unloving, had fallen in love with someone she had never meant to mean anything to her.
"What… What do you mean?" Lily was uncomprehending.
"If you really did love our brother, you will understand." Holly told her, quietly. "I have begun to care for him in a way you could ever imagine." With that, she walked out.
As Holly walked up the corridors to her lover's quarters, a hand reached out and grabbed her by the neck. Out of the darkness stepped the Lord of the Surface.
"My Queen." He said. "I expected better of you."
"Please… Please… Can't breathe…" She choked out. "Artemis…" He released her, and she dropped to the floor, drawing in great lungfuls of air.
"Queen Holly." He addressed her. "You must remember that I put you in power, so I can easily take it away again."
"How… How did you know?" She asked.
"I felt your presence leave me, so I followed you. I heard your conversation with your sister." Holly's eyes widened.
"How… How much did you hear?" She hoped he didn't hear the final part.
"All of it." He said. Holly's eyes got wider.
"No…" She whispered.
"Yes." He replied. He knelt down next to her, putting his arms around her waist. "I knew from the beginning that you didn't love me, but I had become enamoured by you. To hear those few words from your mouth has made me very happy, which is why I have already forgiven you for you going against my wishes." He ran her hands across her face and down her neck. She sighed.
"I apologise for you having to hear that." She said. "And I meant the last part."
"Well I mean it when I say that the same applies to me." She gasped at this, and then he pressed his lips to hers.
The morning light of the cavern crystals shone once more through the windows of the great palace of the Haven throne, bringing with it the awakening of the Haven Queen and the Lord of the Surface.
"Good morning, my dear." Artemis said as he watched his queen sit up. Her olive skin shone in the light, and she seemed to sparkle as the rays hit the curves of her body. She smiled at him, and he realised exactly how smitten he was with her. He watched and responded as she leant down and kissed him gently on the mouth.
"Good morning, my lord." She said. He ran his hand up her body and across her cheek.
"It is a very good morning indeed." He replied. She smiled.
"I've decided that I want to take you on a tour of Haven and Atlantis." She said. "It will show you the true wealth of the Fey."