Chapter 27

It was three days before Meggie picked up her journal to write to her husband. She didn't know why she waited so long, but when she saw the first blank page the first words on it were the complete truth.

I miss you, my king. Meggie wrote the words wanting him to appear out of the shadows of the library like he used to. She wanted his arms to twine around her like the most protective rope and feel the warm safety that came with his presence. After she wrote the words, Meggie watched the page wanting to see a reply from him immediately, but nothing came. His messy scrawl that she had never quite got him to refine never appeared and as the page remained blank, Meggie felt something inside her give a throb of pain.

I love you. The next words tumbled forth as she was still staring at the white paper awaiting his response, Meggie didn't even realize she had written them until she saw them in her handwriting on the page, but still nothing appeared beside her words. That was when she started to write again this time putting it in the form of a letter to the man she loved.

Capricorn,

I hope you arrived safely. That I didn't mess up somehow and cut off you or anyone else's arms or legs or anything else important like that. It's been three days here without you, but I have been trying to manage everything here. I've continued to read riches out of books for you and today, the guards got sent away to the surrounding villages to reap their destruction. I thought you would've liked that, though as I was doing it, I missed you. The castle feels cold, sad, without you, but I'm going to try to warm it up before you return. I'll end this now because I know how busy you must be, but I do hope you'll let me know that you're alright.

All my love,

Always

Meggie

Meggie expected a response this time, but nothing appeared. Capricorn wasn't responding and as she looked up only to find the sun had gone down, Meggie felt another throb of pain. He wasn't responding, he was ignoring her, and not only did it worry her, it pained her deeply. Why was he doing this? What was he doing? At first, she chalked it up to him having not seen it yet and closing the journal she hoped she would find one when she opened it again. She didn't though, not the next day or the day after that or after that. Meggie didn't know what to think as she continued, each day simply reading riches from books as she waited for the guards to return. As the third day without a word passed, Meggie felt her worry turn to fear, fear that something had went wrong, and he wasn't coming back. Because he was dead. Part of her refused to believe that though, she trusted him completely, and knew who Capricorn was. He was strong and could protect himself, Meggie knew she didn't need to be worried or scared, but another part of her just wouldn't stop doing so. In the end, Meggie knew she just wanted to hear from him.

Capricorn, please don't ignore me. Meggie knew how needy her next words were, but she couldn't help them unable to hide the hurt from his lack of response especially when even this received not a word from him. After that, he was all she could think of. Meggie wasn't sleeping hardly at all or reading anymore. She stopped doing anything and found herself wondering the halls her journal in her hands. She kept it with her always hoping for a response from him. Hoping for just one word from him, but nothing came. The longer the silence lasted the more Meggie began to withdrawal from everything else around her, her mind going wild with the possibilities of what could be happening to him in the Inkworld. What if she had done something wrong and he wasn't okay? What if he had met another woman? What if her father or his mother had hurt him somehow? The possibilities were endless, and Meggie had no answers which led to her writing to him once more this time with tears in her eyes.

Capricorn? Meggie wrote his name questioning if he was on the other side of whatever this connection was.

Please, say something. I'm worried about you. I haven't heard from you since you left. I love you, please, let me know you're okay. As she wrote the words in clear black ink, Meggie let the tears gather in her eyes until they blinded her. After a moment, they slipped away to run down her cheeks, and then they slipped from her face altogether. Meggie watched as they fell onto the page blurring the words as she wrote them.

I love you, my king. Meggie wrote to him next that night fresh tears marring her pretty face as she lay in their bed that felt so big and lonely without him her tears still marring the words and looking at them, Meggie wondered if he would see the stains on his side of things. Again, she waited for anything from him, but received nothing. This time, Meggie felt anger blooming inside herself, but in that moment, she suppressed it.

I keep writing to you with no response and it's only making me miss you more. Are you mad at me or have I done something wrong? Why aren't you answering me? Those were her next words to him and this time Meggie didn't hide anything, not her pain or even her anger especially when again she received nothing, and nearly a month passed since his departure without a word leading Meggie to write her next words with all her anger guiding her.

Capricorn,

I am your queen as well as your wife and I need, no I demand to know of your comings and goings. We had your mother create these journals, so we could stay in touch, and now you're locked in that book you choose to ignore me. If I had known you were going to do that I wouldn't have let you go. I mean, do you have any idea how scared, how worried I am? You could be dead, and I wouldn't know it which is exactly why I didn't want you to do this. For all I know my father did something or worse your mother did something. Would you please respond, or I swear I will come over there and kick your ass right back here?

Meggie almost signed her name at the bottom, but she stopped herself. That would only downplay everything she had just written, and she didn't want that. She wanted him to take her anger seriously, so this time, she left the bottom blank. She hoped it would help him see how serious, how hurt she really was. That she was mad and hurt. After all, it was all true, she was his wife, the woman he claimed to love, and yet he leaves only to ignore her this way. Not to mention, he had made her his queen, and yet he was abandoning her. It made Meggie wonder if maybe he hadn't forgotten her altogether, if maybe, he wasn't coming back. And Meggie didn't know what to do if that were the case.

"I can't face her" thought Capricorn every time he opened his journal to find her words waiting for him.

"I can't tell her what a failure I am" thought Capricorn his heart throbbing as he read her words wanting to sooth her worries but finding he couldn't his mother beginning to get to him as he too began to believe that he was a failure. He didn't want her to see him fail.

"This was hopeless" Capricorn was beginning to stop believing he could do this at all, for though he had been in the Inkworld for over a month nothing was happening, and he was beginning to think he wasn't the evil villain that he had once been. He felt like something was holding him back. If he spoke to his mother, she always said that Meggie was the cause of his weakness, but Capricorn pushed that thought away. Capricorn wouldn't believe that, not about the woman he loved, because he knew she made him strong in so many ways. Which is why he hadn't written to her despite her pleas. Capricorn thought he already knew the answer, for the one person that made him feel the weakest was his mother, and that's exactly what she was doing now. She was the one holding him back by walking all over him. She treated him like he was the one who needed to be ordered around. Basta was the only one who had dared breach the subject with him and Capricorn hadn't been in the mood to deal with it. That was why after a while, Capricorn stopped opening his journal altogether because he couldn't see the words she wrote anymore. He couldn't see the pain in them or the worry, but even that didn't last long. A week went by and one night, Capricorn couldn't take it, and opening the journal he traced her words with his fingers. His heart was pained by her pleas to know of his whereabouts.

He saw Meggie's words, he felt them in his own heart, and as much as he wanted to respond, he couldn't. Instead, he traced her pretty penmanship with his finger imagining her as she wrote each word. He smiled as he read her words, missing her too, and yet hating the way she doubted herself.

"She must be going insane wondering about me" thought Capricorn as two months went by for him and opening his journal he was surprised by the words he found waiting for him. Capricorn read her words feeling a pang in his heart as he read what she wrote. He saw anger there and pain, pain that he had caused, and at first, he tried not to respond. The way she spoke to him though instantly made him angry and as much as Capricorn tried, he couldn't hold it in. Her words had an effect on him both good and bad.

First, he felt guilt, for not responding to her, and second, he felt anger, anger that she thought she could speak to him the way she was. Finding a pencil, he scrawled his first words to her in the time he'd been gone.

I think we should talk, my queen. Take the potion. The words he wrote were angry just like hers before, but unlike her, he didn't have to wait for a response. Even as he knew he shouldn't be mad, Capricorn felt it running through his veins as he waited to see what she would say. Part of him didn't even know why he was mad as her words appeared before his eyes. He received a response almost immediately.

Glad to see your alive. As soon as Meggie wrote the words, she slammed her journal shut with a snap throwing it on a table before bursting from the library toward their bedroom where she kept the potion Mortola had created. Again, she opened the door with a slam as it hit the wall, and rifling through a drawer, she found a vial of the potion quickly downing it as her husband was doing the same. Neither knew what the potion would do. Only that Mortola said it would allow them to stay in contact through their dreams, but neither of them had bothered to test it. Now, they realized how wrong that was. Meggie felt woozy at first, her steps unsure as she made it to the bed falling onto it. She blacked out only to wake up in the throne room her vision unfocused until she heard footsteps behind her.

"It worked" breathed Meggie as she turned to find her husband behind her looking menacing.

There was no smile on his face, only a look of anger that matched her own. Meggie couldn't help but think that this was not how she had pictured this. She should be running into his arms, she should be kissing him, telling him how much she loved and missed him, but no, she couldn't do that now. Meggie wanted to, but she just couldn't back down, not as mad as she was.

"Glad to see I had no reason to be worrying despite not hearing from you all this time" said Meggie finding that all she could do was glare at him finding that he glared right back as they stepped slowly closer to each other.

"You demanded to see me, my queen" said Capricorn his tone clipped as he cracked his knuckles as he approached her.

"Yes, well…I'll never do that again—from now on I'll stop wanting to know if the man I love is dead or alive" seethed Meggie her hands clenching at her sides as she got all the closer to him.

Suddenly, they were directly in each other's face screaming at each other in a way they hadn't before. Neither of them heard a word the other said, they were screaming in tandem unable to fully understand why or even what they were saying. The screaming started suddenly, and it stopped just as suddenly. Meggie and Capricorn stopped screaming in the same moment their breathing heavy as they stood toe to toe staring each other down. They didn't say anything as they tried to catch their breath their pounding heartbeats drowning out the silence that surrounded them.

"Who the hell do you think you are. My actions are my own, you have no say in them" growled Capricorn.

"I think that I'm your wife—I love you—and I was worried. And if I have no say then why'd you bother telling me you were leaving?" snapped Meggie from between clenched teeth.

"I wanted to keep you in the loop…that does not mean that you are in charge of me. You cannot speak to me like I am at your beck and call—I am your husband, your king—you have no say in anything" exclaimed Capricorn part of him unsure why he was yelling at her as he continued to do so. As he was yelling, he couldn't help thinking that he hadn't pictured their first meeting this way. He had imagined himself kissing her, making love to her, but not fighting with her this way over something that didn't even completely make sense to him. He was thinking that, but his yelling continued, all while Meggie stood up to him her own voice yelling back. As he watched her do so, part of him was proud, and a little turned on by her. She didn't back down in the face of his anger but stood up to him.

"All I wanted to know was if you were alive…because for some reason that I can't understand right now—I love you—I care whether your alive or dead. How am I supposed to feel when my husband is an entire world away and I have no word from him? When I don't know if he's dead or not?" exclaimed Meggie her entire body shaking in her anger even as she tried to control it. Capricorn knew as he screamed back that her words were true and part of him understood where she was coming from. If it had been him he knew he'd have been just as frantic as she was, but for some reason his head wouldn't see reason. He just kept yelling at her and she yelled right back until suddenly, the fight progressed until Capricorn found he was holding her roughly by the shoulders. Meggie still didn't back down even as his grip hurt her. Her anger made it so that she didn't even feel it.

"I can take care of myself—I don't need you to care if I'm dead or alive…I don't need you. All your worrying and you're love has made me a weakling. All I've heard since arriving back in my world is how weak you've made me and she's right—Mortola is right. All you're love has done for me is make me a weak simpleton who can't make his own decisions" snapped Capricorn stopping as soon as the words were out of his mouth. The look on Meggie's face stopped him. It was filled with hurt and something else he couldn't quite gauge. He knew immediately he had gone too far and spoken words that were so far from the truth. For Meggie, as his words seemed to echo through the room, she felt like they were knives stabbing her repeatedly in the heart. They shook her far more then anything ever had before leaving her with nothing to say in reply. And looking at him, she knew she could say any number of hurtful things back. The difference was that she didn't want to. She couldn't because she couldn't hurt him, not like he was hurting her now. She couldn't even think of anything to say choosing to simply stare at him not hiding the hurt she felt inside.

"I wish I'd never fallen in love with you" whispered Meggie her voice cracking as she said it the tears gathering in her eyes as she looked up at him. The second the words left her mouth, Capricorn knew she didn't mean them, and he regretted his words even more because he had led her to say them.

He regretted every word he had spoken since seeing her again. His hands fell away from her and as they did, hers rose up slapping him right in the face. It stung in more ways then one, it stung to see the hurt he had put in her eyes, and even more when she started to back away.

"Meggie" said Capricorn grabbing hold of her once more to keep her from going. She fought him immediately though, her hands pushing his away.

"No, get away—I make you weak remember" exclaimed Meggie her tears in the cracked sound of her voice.

"No, you don't" whispered Capricorn his own strength too much for her as he suddenly tugged her into his arms his lips attacking hers. At first, Meggie continued to fight him, her lips breaking away from his with a no on them, but after a moment her fists against his chest stilled. They stopped altogether then simply fisting in his clothes as she gave in to kiss him back. After a moment, her hands unclenched as they moved up his chest to drape around his neck as the kiss deepened.

It was hurried and passionate and heated and came in a flurry of movement that ended as quickly as it began. When it ended, Capricorn kissed the corner of her mouth as she sighed opening her eyes to find him hovering above her.

"I'm sorry" said Capricorn on a sigh. Meggie didn't respond, her eyes only peered up at him as if in a blank stare. Then her hands cupped his face and Capricorn felt relieved as she drew him all the closer.

"I'm still mad at you" whispered Meggie her voice cracking. Capricorn only nodded as they met each other halfway in a kiss. This kiss was what the first one should have been. It was slow, sensual even as it deepened until it ended on a breath. Silence fell as they looked at each other then and suddenly, Meggie was swept into his arms.

Before she knew it, she was in his lap, straddling him, as they sat in his throne, and suddenly his head was in her chest. He gave a heavy sigh and Meggie instantly knew something was wrong. When her hands began to stroke his face, Capricorn looked at her before he kissed her.

"I'm sorry" whispered Capricorn again touching her face, so she wouldn't look away.

"I didn't mean any of those things" whispered Capricorn.

"I missed you—I do miss you" whispered Capricorn needing her to believe him.

"I know, I miss you—I just—got mad. I was worried something might have happened to you when you didn't respond—then…I started thinking the worst" exclaimed Meggie her voice cracking once more.

"I know you've only been gone a month, but" exclaimed Meggie before suddenly he stopped her.

"Did you say a month?" said Capricorn.

"Yeah" whispered Meggie.

"I've been gone nearly two months, Meggie" whispered Capricorn watching as she quickly began to shake her head.

"No, you haven't—not in my world" whispered Meggie both going silent until their eyes met. They realized what it was in the same moment.

"Time must move quicker in the Inkworld" said Meggie touching his cheek with a smile as she leaned in for another kiss.

"So, my time away from you will be longer" breathed Capricorn his arms going around her.

He held her close for a long time feeling relieved as her hands touched him almost everywhere. She wasn't mad anymore and neither was he.

"What's happening over there, my love, what has you so distressed?" whispered Meggie feeling as he sighed against her. He still didn't want to admit defeat especially to her.

"I'm failing, Meggie" said Capricorn making her pull away to look at him.

"I feel—useless over there—like I don't know what to do. Mortola…isn't helping either" exclaimed Capricorn his frustration showing. Meggie took his face in her hands their foreheads touching.

"What's she doing?" whispered Meggie gazing into his eyes.

"She's taking over everything…ordering people around even me. She keeps saying I'm going to fail—that you've made me weak. I don't know…I feel useless" whispered Capricorn. Meggie held him close then wanting to rip Mortola to pieces.

"You're not useless. Don't let her get to you because we both know you're capable of bringing down the Adderhead not to mention much more. Show her that because, my king, you may be in another world, but you are still you. Show them how dark you can be, pillage—kill—light that world on fire just like you do here. Just like you used to" whispered Meggie seeing as the light began to shine in his eyes. She knew that light, she had fallen in love with it, and loved it still. Capricorn brought her to kiss him his lips soft against hers. When they parted, they were both smiling until reality got in the way.

"The potion will wear off eventually" said Meggie her touch almost tender.

"I know" whispered Capricorn.

"So, you sent the guards to pillage" said Capricorn feeling proud in that moment.

"I thought that's what you would do" said Meggie feeling as he kissed her neck.

"When I get back—I'll be doing the same thing—because Mortola is wrong. You inspire me" growled Capricorn holding her sides as her arms draped around him once more.

"You inspire me too" whispered Meggie as their lips met in a slow heated kiss. Capricorn tugged her closer feeling as she started to grind into his budding erection.

"I miss you" gasped Meggie as he moved lower attacking her throat. Meggie felt as he marked her part of her wondering if they would be there when she awoke.

"I love you" gasped Meggie bringing him back to kiss her as her fingers worked at the ties to his shirt. When they were undone, she lifted it over his head as his own hands opened her blouse letting it slide down her arms after his. That was when Meggie left him to remove her own skirt returning to him right after.

"No undergarments, my love" whispered Capricorn his hands running over the smooth nakedness of her skin.

"I have this nasty habit of dressing with you in mind, those usually aren't on your mind" whispered Meggie capturing his lips as he brought her closer against his chest. She could feel his full erection against her center then, but then she was drawn away by something else. Suddenly, Meggie felt woozy, like she was falling, and gripping his shoulders she tried to balance herself.

"Capricorn…stop" breathed Meggie trying to focus on him.

The second he looked at her, Capricorn knew something was wrong as she struggled to focus.

"Meggie?" whispered Capricorn feeling as she sighed her eyes finally looking into his.

"Something's wrong—I feel…strange" gasped Meggie her hands leaving him as they started to shake. The rest of her began to shake as well as he grabbed her hands as her whole body seemed to spasm. Meggie closed her eyes still trying to focus and suddenly they opened again.

She knew now, she knew what was happening.

"Someone's trying to wake me up" gasped Meggie once again feeling like she was falling before suddenly she found herself pulled away. For Capricorn, he saw her body spasm one last time before suddenly she wasn't there anymore. Capricorn awoke minutes later feeling both worried and sexually frustrated. Opening his journal, he wrote to his wife for the first time.

Are you alright? After he wrote the words, Capricorn felt his worry increase when he received no response. Then he sighed, this must have been what Meggie had felt all this time. When Meggie woke up, she found a guard shaking her franticly.

"What is it!" snapped Meggie both mad and as equally frustrated as her husband.

"Dustfinger is in the throne room" said the guard immediately.