So. This is way longer than I thought I'd make it. But this is going to be screwy. So expect everything.
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Chapter 11: And You Thought it was Over
Kel was stressed. Really stressed. It was just one thing after another- you think you're home free, and you remember you're pregnant. Now that that was over, she remembered the whole arranged marriage deal. What made it worse it that Kel's parents could validate their claim by saying that Kel had a child by Neal, and now had to marry him. Screw whatever fates had caused her to conceive that night!
She named the child Faeya, in hope that her pretty name would make up for the fact that Kel wished her daughter had never been born. It didn't.
***
Neal lay with his back on his bed, looking at the picture in his hands. Shit! Why did he have to love her? It really didn't help that she was madly in love with Cleon. It really didn't. And she would hate him forever for having to marry him. And she would. Kel and Cleon had tried to elope, but that blasted king (had to involve King Jonathan!) put this weird and complicated spell on the two that forbid them to elope. Every time they tried, they would have a strong need to go to the bathroom and break out in hives (hey, it's original!). So they were stuck. In fact, Kel and Neal were betrothed, and the marriage was next week.
Ah, how he wished Kel could love him! That one night of bliss, not so long ago, had taken him to new heights of ecstasy. Neal tried to think of ways to make her love him, but they all seemed to result in Cleon's bloody murder. Damn!
***
Kel hated her life. She hated everyone, everything in it. She hated Cleon for letting this happen, she hated Neal for marrying him, and she hated everyone else for not caring. Trying to arrange her disgustingly frilly dress, she winced and a maid put on her lip rouge. Today was the day of the wedding- the cursed day. She might as well be chained to the altar. But something inside her rebelled. It wouldn't be so bad- would it? She mentally berated herself. Of course it would be horrible. But she couldn't help thinking… Stop thinking these thoughts! She yelled at herself. But it couldn't be that… that she wanted to marry Neal? Bullshit. She loved Cleon. But…
Her train of thought was cut off as the maid practically dragged her to the door. "I'm coming, I'm coming," she mumbled.
Her dressing room was in a hallway right outside the grand temple room where she would be married. She had only to walk through the door, under all those staring eyes, and walk up to the altar where Neal would be standing, stand through a long and boring speech, and then kiss Neal. But it was possibly the hardest thing for her to do in her life.
The maid, along with a herald, opened the grand double doors. She walked in her long white dress to the front, thinking Oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my god. She clasped her hands in front of her to conceal their shaking. She could see Cleon sitting in the front row, a look of pain in his eyes. Faeya was sitting in Cleon's lap, three years old now. Kel looked up to the front and saw Neal, looking at her with eyes wide. She could see something in those eyes- could it be… love?
She heard but didn't hear the priest's droning, concentrating all her will not to faint. Then everyone looked at her expectantly, and she realized she was supposed to kiss Neal. Looking up, she took his hands and looked into his eyes. What she saw there, she didn't know, but she kissed him with as much passion as she had ever kissed Cleon.
***
Cleon saw Kel go up to the front, take Neal's hands. He was the one shaking when she kissed him, shaking so violently people started to notice. Drawing his belt knife, he stabbed himself in the chest, screaming "I love you, Kel!"
Faeya, still in his lap, screamed as blood poured all over her. She continued screaming as the woman sitting beside her tried to separate her from Cleon's corpse, continued screaming as she spat out the blood that was in her mouth. Then her eyes glazed over, and she clung, shaking, to the knight's body, and would not let go.
***
Kel saw Cleon kill himself, and pushed away Neal to rush over to him. Faeya was still holding on to him, and it took all Kel's strength to make her let go. The child was covered in blood, it started to dry in her hair, and it dripped down her face. Her eyes were closed and showed no emotion. Kel's dress was ruined. She bore her daughter away, wiping the blood and bile from her face. Faeya made no move to stop her, lying stone still as she was washed. But you could tell, there was something inside her that could never be washed away…
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Wow. That was totally not how I intended it to be. I never thought I would write a K/N, that is just so freaky. In fact, I was never going to involve Chisakami in the first place, and most of the stuff that happened in here was a total accident. But I love it. This is the end, in case you're wondering. Though I will do something about Faeya. That character's too cool to go. Talk about traumatized!