Medusa flopped backwards, her head hitting the pillow. It felt good to be back in her usual bed; it was much more comfortable than the infirmary. In retrospect, maybe she should have gone back, but she couldn't bear the thought of staying in the sterile, washed out room any longer.
She knew her parents would find her eventually, and she didn't know what would happen when they did. Even so, nothing, not even them, would stop her from completing her mission.
She lay there for a while, losing herself in thought. Her eyelids were starting to droop when she heard the soft sound of her door opening. For a moment she did not say anything, deducing who it was that stood there.
"If you're worried I'm going to yell at you, I'm not," she said.
A soft sigh of relief, then, "I was just making sure."
Medusa raised her head to look at Crystal. She beckoned with her hair, indicating she was welcome to sit on the bed.
"Mother and father were looking for you," Crystal said as she hoisted herself onto the bed. "I was, too."
"I know," Medusa murmured.
"Our cousins didn't know where you'd gone, either."
Medusa allowed herself a small smirk. "I thought not."
"Where did you go?" Crystal asked, turning to look at her sister.
"I…went somewhere to think," Medusa said.
"About Blackagar?"
Medusa looked at her sister. "Well…yes."
Crystal nodded as if she'd expected this. "I don't agree with what the king and queen are doing either, but I can't do anything about it."
"What they're doing is an atrocity," Medusa said, her anger flaring with the thought of it. "I'm going to stop it."
"How? You're already pledged to Maximus."
Medusa pushed herself fully upright, scooting close to Crystal. "You must keep what I'm about to say to you a secret, understand?"
Crystal nodded, studying her sister's face seriously. "I will."
Medusa took a deep breath before continuing. "Tomorrow, I will speak with Maximus about interceding on his brother's behalf. If he finds he can't…" or won't, she added silently, "then Blackagar and I will leave Attilan."
"Leave Atti—" Crystal's shriek of outrage was cut off by a tendril of hair wrapping around her mouth.
"Shh!" Medusa hissed. "You'll wake up the whole palace like that!"
"Leave Attilan?" Crystal whispered fiercely when Medusa removed her hair. "You can't do that!"
"We'll have to," she said firmly. "Blackagar will not die to the hate of his parents."
Crystal was silent for a moment before she replied. "You visited him." It wasn't a question.
"Yes," Medusa sighed. "I did."
Her eyes widened. "How did you manage it? What did you do? How did you get in? Have you done it before-?"
Medusa held up a silencing hand. "The only thing that's important is that we decided that, if all else fails, we will leave Attilan."
"How? What will you do?"
"Blackagar will get us there. I've heard stories about people who have powers, not necessarily Inhumans, but perhaps we will seek them out."
"I don't want you to leave," said Crystal.
"I don't want to leave either," said Medusa. "But Blackagar will not die so long as I can help it."
"Do you love him?"
Medusa froze at the question. At first she considered her sister might be teasing, but her face was full of something it rarely was: dead seriousness.
"I…I don't know," she answered truthfully.
"Nearly three months ago you hated the idea of marrying him," said Crystal. "Now you will leave Attilan with him to save his life."
Medusa shook her head. "It's not that simple."
"It seems that way to me."
"You're young," she murmured. "As you get older things will get more complicated. You'll see."
Crystal studied her shrewdly. "Be careful, Medusa. Do you still have Lockjaw's whistle?"
"Yes, I do." She rose from the bed, crossing the room to her desk and taking the small trinket out of the drawer where it had lain forgotten for months.
"Keep it with you," said Crystal. "Just in case."
"I will."
"I should probably get back to my room before it gets too late." Crystal inhaled deeply. "Whatever happens, I love you."
Medusa felt her heart twist. "I love you too."
Crystal left like a small ghost, exiting her room with hardly a sound. Medusa was left in the silence with a burning question in her mind.
Do I love him?
/
"We expect you to apologize to Queen Rynda and the Crown Prince."
Medusa tried not to grimace at the mention of Maximus' newly bestowed title. "Yes, mother."
"We know it all seems unfair to you, but believe me when I say that the king and queen have the best interests of their sons and their people in mind."
"Yes, mother." Medusa kept her face a mask of dejectedness, her hair limp to mirror the false emotion as a disguise for her inward seething at Rynda. "I intended to speak with Maximus anyway."
Ambur nodded curtly. "See that you do." She let out a sigh. "You may go."
Medusa sprang to her feet, eager to speak with Maximus. She had spent the last half hour being lectured by her mother, and she could have cared less, but they did not need to know that lest they keep her even longer.
She hurried towards Maximus' chambers, primping as she went. She was dressed to impress in a long gown of magenta, hoping that if Maximus was obstinate as he sometimes was, she might win him over with a little bit of charm.
She stopped outside his door, taking a fortifying breath and willing her hair not to writhe with the anxiety boiling within. It was this or leave Attilan.
She raised her hand and knocked on the door.
"Enter," came Maximus' voice.
Medusa opened the door, taking a step inside. The prince sat with his back to her, fiddling away with some sort of technology, various bits of circuitry and metal strewn over his desk.
"Maximus," said she.
He turned around, his eyes widening at the sight of her. "Lady Medusalith! I apologize; I was not expecting you."
"It is quite alright," she said, her hair twitching slightly.
He rose from his chair, straightening his clothes. "To what do I owe this visit?" He took her hand, brushing his lips over the back of it.
"I've come to talk to you about a matter of great importance," said she.
Maximus met her gaze and his face sobered as if he sensed the gravity of the mater. "Of course, dear lady. Please sit."
They both sat upon the edge of his bed. Medusa fidgeted, her hair rippling restlessly.
"I've come to speak with you about your brother."
Maximus' face darkened slightly. "Ah, yes. I figured that would be the case."
"I want you to realize something," she said. "I want you to know—"
"—that my brother is dangerous and in need of Pacifying," Maximus interrupted. "After your outburst against my mother surely you've come to realize just how dangerous he is!"
It took Medusa a moment to regain her voice. "No, my lord, you misunderstand. In fact, I want you to know the opposite. Blackagar isn't dangerous at all."
A look of confusion made its way onto the young prince's face. "What? Surely you out of all of us must know how dangerous he is. You were standing right next to him at the Christening, and the price you paid as a result is obvious."
Medusa shifted her hair over the bandage a little more. "It was an accident. I have reason to believe that Blackagar was under the influence of another Inhuman that caused him to speak."
Maximus shook his head. "That's far-fetched, my lady. Even if it were true, what would you have me do?"
"I want you to help me free him," Medusa said, beginning to feel desperate. "Your own mother has sentenced your brother to death. Surely you must disagree with what she s doing!"
"He is dangerous," Maximus said firmly. "He has the power to destroy Attilan entirely, and after the Christening all the people have realized this. I know it might be hard to give up someone you spent time with, but please, come out of this denial! For the good of Attilan, he must die, and I promise…" he reached out to touch her hair, "…I will be ten times the husband he could be."
Medusa stood, her hair pulling back instinctively before he could touch it. She felt both revolted and saddened at his easy dismissal of his brother; the rift in their relationship was wider than she thought.
"Thank you, my lord," she said, doing her best to remain neutral. "But I cannot give this up." She turned to leave.
"And I cannot let you leave."
Medusa turned halfway. "What…?" Before she could finish, Maximus snatched something off his desk and darted forward. There was a sharp sting in her neck, and her hair went numb, falling limply around her. Panic surged through her at the sensation, but before she can act on it, her limbs turned weak and she fell to the floor.
Maximus crouched down next to her, studying her with a triumphant glint in his eyes. "That worked better than I had supposed."
"What's…going on?" Medusa gasped, attempting in vain to move her hair, her limbs, anything.
"I simply cannot have you rescuing my brother," he said. "I was always the better fit to be the King of Attilan, and you, my sweet, perfect, Medusalith, shall be my queen."
"No!" she snarled, her heart thudding wildly in her chest.
Maximus scoffed at her. "Come now, I was hoping you would accept me of your own free will. You are pledged to me now; why can't you just accept it?"
"Because…Blackagar doesn't deserve to die!" she hissed.
Maximus reached out, grabbing her face roughly and drawing it so close to his she could feel his breath on her skin. "I will give you this one last chance to be my queen of your own will. Do you love me, Medusalith?"
"No," she said. "Whatever affection I had for you died only moments ago."
"Then tell me," said he, "do you love my brother?"
The question gave Medusa pause. It was the same question posed to her by Crystal the previous day, but now, where it seemed that life and death itself hung in the balance, she knew her answer with a sudden, shining clarity.
"Yes, I love him."
Maximus' eyes widened, as if amazed by this revelation. "How can you love him? Even if he loved you back he would never be able to declare it, not for as long as you live."
"Because love is more than words," Medusa told him, now more sure of herself than ever. "He does not have to speak. He can be silent until the day he dies and his love will be more than words."
"But you were supposed to love me!" In a fit of rage, Maximus shoved her head down, banging it against the floor. Medusa lay there, unable to move, pain throbbing through her head as she listened to his heavy breathing.
"No matter," said he. "You will love me anyway."
Before she could even begin to understand what he meant, something came into her mind. It was like a rushing wave, overtaking everything in its path: her thoughts, her control, the whole of her mind. She had time for one final scream before she fell silent.
"I love you, Medusalith," said Maximus, cradling her face with a sudden tenderness.
"I love you, my lord," she responded.
/
It was nearing evening when Blackagar heard the doors to his cell open. He readied himself eagerly, having waited all day for Medusa's arrival and the sweetness of her presence. No matter what happened, he would be free and with her.
The door to his inner chambers opened and he exited his bedroom, his hands raised and ready to sign a greeting. Instead he found several of Attilan's guards standing in the doorway, their faces expressionless, their eyes glassy.
One of the guards leapt forwards, pressing a tiny piece of technology to his neck. A sharp sting caused him to instinctively raise his hands to his throat, and the next thing he knew something hard hit him over the head, his last thoughts of Medusa as he sank into blackness.