A/N: Thanks for reading!

And special thanks to my reviewers,

'beachchick3','kaylee00','Kei-Kugody' and my guest reviewer.

Chapter 25: The Second Necklace

May was delivered to me a few days later. She was escorted in by guards and shortly after was left alone with me. We stood apart from each other for a few moments before she walked quickly towards me and embraced me. As soon as I held her, my stone-cold façade evaporated.

"Sapphire you brilliant, brilliant girl." She said to me before she pulled away. "How did you convince him to allow me here?"

"You're my pregnancy gift." I informed her.

"Doctor Stone has filled me in somewhat… He believes himself to be the father?"

"Yes, with absolute certainty." I told her. "He has no idea about Max."

"What about Max? Have you learned of his fate? Of your family?" She continued. "Are they alive or dead?"

"Graves would have me believe they are dead. I will not believe it, though. He has already lied to me once about my husband's death."

May nodded in agreement with me. Her face grew more serious, and she moved closer to me before we spoke again.

"There are those inside of the city who would see Graves' ruin."

"I would see it also." Sapphire answered her.

"I thought you might say that… Jax was getting worried. You're a good actress. He has begun finding those who are against Graves. There are only a few now, but if there were more…"

"Rebellion." Sapphire finished for her. "Tell Jax to keep finding them." Sapphire continued. "But they must be secret, quiet, and safe. And my allegiance with them cannot be known."

May nodded in tense agreement with me.

"Any news on a way out?" I pressed.

May shook her head. "No, I am sorry. We are trying."

I sighed, disappointed, but not altogether surprised. "It's alright." I told her. "There will be a way soon, one way or another. He cannot keep the city shut forever."

"Things have gotten better since you've been Queen." She told me. "The people have noticed."

Under our bargain, I was supposed to help Graves win the city over. I had started by having him take responsibility for his men's brutality in the streets. They no longer did as they pleased, and people were beginning to feel safe again. I had convinced Graves to restart the currency program that existed within the city, as well as advised him to begin large-scale repairs on the city to give people work. Graves caught on quickly to what needed to be done. Soonafter my suggestions he relocated his officers out of the nicer homes in the uppercity they had taken over, and had made use of the Palace's many rooms for his officers. Those homes had belonged to the various scientists and engineers that ran the city, and they had been difficult to comply with new leadership since they had been removed from their homes. With the scientists and engineers back in their homes, they went back to work and the city looking less like a dump. It made sense that the city was coming around.

"It was not all me." I admitted. "He knew already much of what needed to be done, and with my encouragement he saw that it was carried out. But continue to tell the people it was all me. It can't hurt having them on my side."

May nodded in agreement before she changed the subject. "Are you sure you know what you're doing?" She asked me. "If Graves finds out about this child, he will kill the baby and you."

"He will never find out." I told her. "Doctor Stone, Jax, you, and I are the only ones who know about this. Let's keep it that way."

"Your secret is safe with me." She told me. "You saved my child's life once, when I meant nothing to you. The least I can do is save yours."

A few days later I was sitting in my bedroom with May when the door to my chambers was suddenly knocked on very loudly. I heard the sound of it opening and closing quickly, and I immediately recognized the footfalls that came with it.

Graves.

May looked over to me in alarm as she heard his approach. She had yet to see him up close. When he summoned me, he always sent his guards. Visiting my suite himself was unusual for him. I raised my hand to show her to be calm. Graves was usually well tempered when it came to me. Usually.

He was in my room quickly, and he stopped short when he saw I was not alone. He looked at May in mild surprise for a moment.

"Who the hell are you?" He said to her immediately.

I cut in as the old woman immediately ducked her head at his words. His eyes jumped from her to me as I said his name. "Axel, this is May."

"May?" He asked again.

"My handmaiden. I asked for her as my gift."

Recollection came over his face and quickly turned to disinterest. He turned his eyes to May once more. There was silence for several seconds before he spoke. "What the fuck are you still doing in here? Get out."

The old woman immediately scurried out of my bedroom, and shut the door behind her.

"You shouldn't talk to her that way." I scolded him from my bed. "She's a kind woman."

He ignored me completely, and continued to speak. "I have something for you."

"A gift?" I asked him, surprised.

"Yes." He answered. "Come."

I moved from my bed and walked toward him to stand before him. He reached into one of his pockets, and withdrew from it a glimmering necklace. It was far more extravagant than anything I had ever owned. Sapphires and diamonds adorned the necklace, forming a river of glimmering alternating jewels. A large sapphire dangled from its center, surrounded by more diamonds. I was stunned into silence as he held it before me. I had never seen so many precious stones in one place.

"Axel-" I began, completely shocked. It was an extravagant gift. "I don't know what to say. Where did you get this?"

"It came with me, across the ocean. I never thought much for the gold and jewels we had brought with us. After all, they hold little value today." As he spoke, he reached forward to touch the sapphire necklace that already hung around my neck. As he did, I tensed. That was Max's necklace. He had no right to touch it.

"But then I began to notice this." He said to me as he played with the single sapphire. "You always wear it. It occurs to me that a Queen should wear something better."

And just like that, he pulled down hard on the necklace and I felt the chain snap and break from around my neck. And my heart broke with it.

It took everything in my power not to scream as he pulled it away from me, as I felt the broken chain slide over my neck. The stone looked so small in his huge fingers, and the broken chain dangling from it so defeated. I wanted to yank it from his hands.

He tossed the necklace aside. Threw it, so casually. As he did I wanted to lunge forward and snatch it out of the air. It took everything in my power to remain still. I watched desperately as the necklace flew away from us and glittered as it fell through the air. I heard it land, far off and out of my vision.

I wanted to cry. How dare he? How dare Graves touch what Max had given to me- Taint it with his fingers. I was furious, I wanted to scream, I-

"Turn around."

My thoughts were interrupted by Graves' demand. It took everything in my power to turn around obediently and lift my hair for him. As he placed the necklace on me, I felt its weight. It had a weight, unlike the necklace Max had given me. It bore down on my neck, and felt like a collar. When his fingers lingered on my neck and came down to my back I was distinctly reminded of my first interaction with Max. When we had done something so similar so long ago.

I lowered my hair and before I turned to face Graves and I fought hard to regain my composure. I was fighting back tears. Graves had taken and destroyed one of the things I loved so deeply in this world. That was all Graves seemed to do to me.

My mask slid over my face, and before I turned around there was a smile in place of the anguish. As I turned to him my fingers traced over the glittering jewels and my eyes were wide like a child's.

"Thank you. It's so beautiful." I told him.

He kissed my forehead and didn't say anything more. He turned and walked out of my room, leaving the door open as he went. As soon as I heard the front door slam shut I turned in the direction that the necklace had fallen and dropped to my knees. I searched desperately along the floor, trying to find the glimmer that would mean I still had one piece of Max.

When I finally caught sight of it under my dresser I lunged for the necklace and clutched it in my fingers desperately. I half laughed, half sobbed as I held it, and I clutched it back against my chest, back by my heart where it never should have left.

I couldn't hold back anymore. My mask completely evaporated and I broke down. The sobs that came out of my body shook me as they wracked through my bones. My relief at having the necklace again was only matched by my terror at the thought that he just as easily could have pocketed it and I never would have seen it again.

At my brokenhearted sounds May rushed from the other room back into mine.

"Did he hurt you?" Was her immediate and urgent question.

I shook my head and wiped my face hastily. "No. No, he didn't hurt me." I told her as I regained my composure. I opened my hand to show her the necklace and its broken chain.

"Your necklace?" She asked in surprise.

"Max gave it to me." I answered. "Graves broke it, threw it away. I thought he was going to take it from me-"

"It's alright." May consoled me. She wrapped her arm around me and helped me to stand from my place on the floor. "He didn't take it, you still have it."

I nodded, but my heart still ached as I looked at the necklace in my hands. I had no other chains, no way to repair it. Even if I could, wearing it instead of what Graves had given me would be seen as an insult.

"He broke it." Was all I could mumble out. I had no words to describe what I felt at the moment. His collar weighed around my neck, foreign and unwanted. I wanted more than anything to rip off the diamonds and throw them over the balcony. I wanted to fix the broken links on my own necklace, wanted to put it back on my neck.

May guided me back to my bed and pulled back the covers. "You need to rest." She told me. "This stress isn't good for the baby."

I climbed into my bed and she sat beside me, covering me back up as she did. She pet my head and hair gently as I slowly quieted, my eyes never leaving the necklace in my fingers. "I hate him, May." I finally whispered. "I hate him."

"Everything will be alright." Was all she could say.

As she said the words, I wished desperately that I could believe them. But right now, I couldn't see a way that things would still turn out all right.

"I'm going to kill him." I whispered quietly. "I am going to kill him before this is all over."

"Sapphire!" She immediately chastised me. "You cannot say things like that! Someone might hear."

"It's just us now."

"It will not be always. Be careful with your words."

"I'm going to do it. I will kill him."

"You are not a killer." She continued. When I don't respond, she continues with a different subject.

"We should hide it away." She told me. "Max's necklace."

"I don't want to hide it." I replied. "I didn't want to take it off. I don't want it to be hidden away where no one can see it, where I can't feel it."

"It could get lost." She told me. "He could take it away if he catches you with it."

As she said the words I knew she was right. I ran my fingers over the small gem and one last time before I handed the necklace to her.

"We won't put it far." She promised me. She turned to my nightstand, and opened the drawer. She removed a few pieces of plain paper, a pen, and a book before it was empty. I watched as she carefully placed the necklace along the bottom, and covered it with the papers, book, and pen.

"There." She told me as she finished and closed the drawer. "Not far at all. Right beside you as you sleep."

I swallowed, sniffed, and finally nodded. One of the old woman's hands pet my hair, and the other rubbed my back soothingly.

"I know it's hard." She told me quietly. "But you must keep it together. He cannot see you like this. And you cannot say things like that about him aloud."

"I know." I sniffed back. I began to piece together my mask, to pick up the broken pieces that had shattered around me when Max's necklace had snapped. But it was so hard. I couldn't keep the mask together, I couldn't hold it on. "I just want this all to be over." I whispered to her. "I want to wake up tomorrow in my old room, with Max next to me. I want my mother and sisters back. I want to forget that any of this ever happened."

"Soon." She said as she tried to comfort me. "We will find away."

"What if he is dead, May?" My worst fears fell from my mouth finally, the words I hadn't hardly dared to think let alone spoke aloud. "What if Max is already gone and I don't' even know? And every day I just sit here and hope that one day I'm going to see him again and this nightmare will end, but that's just not true at all. And he's really already dead and this is my life now and this is all my life will ever be."

May didn't say anything to me, she just continued the soothing petting of me. Eventually my silence gave way to sleep, and when I woke I saw two guards waiting patiently at the foot of my bed, as May stood by my side, gently waking me.

"My Queen." She said quietly and formally as she woke me. "The King awaits you."

A/N: Not gonna lie, I got a little emotional when I wrote this chapter. I hope you guys enjoyed it, leave me a review.