AN: Sorry for the long delay. My muse has gone missing, so have been feeling a little (lot) uninspired. Still working on my stories, though. Thanks for reading.
...
For three days the Queen continued her game. Ten would enter the room to find Kate seated at the Queen's side. And he would have to stand by the Queen, with no errands to provide him relief, as she tormented his Diamond. Every day, Kate looked more and more frightened, and he had to steel himself against that and against every painful emotion that burned through his body despite the increasingly large doses of Peace and Calm. He would stand there, trying not to watch, but having no choice but to do just that.
On the fourth day, the game changed. He had been standing outside the throne room door for nearly ten minutes before he steeled himself enough to go in, to endure another day at the Queen's side. His hand clenched around the empty bottle of Calm, and inwardly he chastised himself for his growing dependence on the tea, before secreting it away back in his robes. Taking a deep breath, he schooled his expression and entered.
The Queen was already present, seated as usual on her large red throne, but the small chair that Kate had occupied was gone. It took him only a moment, a quick sweep of the room, to notice that Kate was still there, but was now standing among the courtiers at the side of the room. Ten wasn't sure whether to breath a sigh of relief or to hold his breath all day, anticipating the Queen's next move. He was certain she wasn't done tormenting him. She had been taking entirely too much glee from it.
The Queen handed him her glass as he approached to stand at her side, but otherwise ignored him as she began addressing the council. When the Queen's head was turned, Ten finally dared a glance in Kate's direction. She wasn't looking at him, just keeping her focus straight ahead, and tugging slightly on the hem of her dress, which was extremely short. Ten cursed himself as his gaze travelled, inadvertently, to the length of Kate's legs. He quickly turned his head away, hoping the Queen hadn't noticed. But she was still busy, addressing the council, and to his relief, there was no indication that she had seen.
Throughout the day he had managed to steal several glances over at Kate, and still the Queen hadn't seemed to notice. But Kate had kept her eyes straight ahead, not daring to look back at him. Biting his lower lip, he peeled his eyes from her for the tenth time, to notice the Queen's eyes on him. And his heart sank as a sickening smile spread across her face.
"Pretty, isn't she?" the Queen said, softly enough that Ten might have been the only to hear her. "I wonder what she would look like without a head."
Ten fought hard against the cold hand of panic that squeezed tightly around his heart, and the hot prickle of tears behind his eyes, but he couldn't stop the words that forced their way out of his mouth. "Please, no. Your majesty, please."
He knew pleading with her was the wrong thing to do. It was always the wrong thing to do. But he couldn't stop himself. The room had fallen silent, everyone's eyes on the drama unfolding on the dais, and the Queen seemed to relish the attention.
"No?" Her eyes swept the room, lighting on her new pet for a long moment before turning back to her servant, who stood trembling at her side. Then she let out a long, dramatic sigh. "Hmm, perhaps not."
Ten's breath hitched in his chest as relief flooded through him, followed swiftly by renewed trepidation. The Queen had full control now, and she knew it. And he knew that he had just made things much worse – for Kate and himself.
"Now go see if Carpenter has a new wonder for me to try yet."
Ten rushed from the room, sparing one last glance over at his Diamond. She was watching him now, her green eyes turning to liquid. And at the sight of them, he felt the first hot tear hit his cheek, and he fled.
True to her nature, the Queen did up the ante, but she waited two more days to do so. And during those two days, Ten served her all the more faithfully, and refused to steal even a single glance at the side of the room, where he knew Kate would be. And perhaps his control was what precipitated the Queen's next move.
When he entered the throne room the next morning, Kate was once again seated at the Queen's side. But it took him a moment to realize it was her and not Duchess. Her golden brown hair had been bleached to an unnatural shade of blonde. Her face was covered in heavy makeup, and the dress she wore left more skin exposed then covered. He could practically feel the lecherous looks of the other men in the hall. But all he could do was stare in horror. Stare, until he noticed the Queen watching him. Then he forced a neutral expression and made his way up to her side.
He struggled, throughout the day, not to look at the new Kate. Struggled to picture her instead as she had been, on the roof that night, barefoot, the moonlight making her skin almost seem to glow. The feel of her light brown hair against his fingers. Struggled not to let those images slip away.
She looks like Duchess, he thought, miserably, as his eyes were unwillingly drawn to his Diamond again. Duchess. Ten tried in vain to remember what Duchess had looked like, before the Queen had taken her and turned her into a tool to control her son.
The way she had turned Kate...
He looked away sharply, refusing to look back.
...
He could scarcely drag himself out of bed the next morning. He had spent half the night trying to figure out a way to end her game, and the other half dreading what new malice the Queen would have waiting for him in the morning.
As he had so many mornings in a row now, he reached into his cupboard and pulled out a dose of Calm, and then a second and a third. One he secreted into his robes, the other two he uncapped and downed. And he glared at himself in the mirror until the tonic took its effect. He, the Ten of Clubs, who had always been so careful to not become dependant on tea, to never enter the Queen's presence in an altered state of mind... He shook his head and donned his cap. Then he took a deep breath and headed for the throne room.
As always, his eyes quickly scanned the hall and located Kate. Today, she was again at the side of the room, rather then beside the queen, and the dress she wore was more modest – a red, white and silver diamond-motif dress similar to what she wore when she worked the casino floor.
But any relief he had changed to utter confusion, and he did a double take and stared. Her dress, which had once borne a red 4 at her right shoulder now sported a 10 in its place.
A Ten?
A card's rank could only be increased one of two ways. If a lower card married a higher card, any child born to them would hold the higher rank (and that led to many a low card trying to elevate their position through marriage). Or, if a card had the favor of a monarch, that King or Queen could grant them a higher rank. In fact, that is how Cruz's father had become a Ten, elevated from a Nine for his years of service.
But it was almost unheard of for a king or queen to elevate a card more than one rank, and never more that two. But Kate – she was now a Ten. The Queen had elevated her six stations.
And it didn't make sense. Why would the Queen made Kate his equal, dissolving any remaining taboo of courting well below one's station? What purpose did that serve in her game?
His eyes travelled, in record time, from his Diamond to the Queen and then back to his Diamond again. At his confusion, the Queen merely smirked and said nothing. And promptly sent him on another errand.
...
The day had been... uneventful. Completely uneventful. Ten had been sent on multiple errands all day long, and the Queen had been as dismissive of his presence as she had always been before – only paying him mind when she wanted something. She had ignored Kate entirely, as though she were not even there. He had spent the day trying to figure out this new development in the Queen's game and failing utterly. Throughout the day, he waited for the other shoe to fall. It didn't.
Nonetheless, he was more than grateful when he was permitted to leave. His head was throbbing, and he was craving another dose of Calm, though at the moment he had none left on him. He considered going to his chambers to retrieve one, but instead he found himself in an elevator heading for the roof.
The evening air felt cold, and he wrapped his robes more tightly around his body as he made his way to the place he and Kate had always met. The first of the stars were just starting to show in the slowly-darkening sky. He slid to a sitting position against the wall, leaned his head back and took a deep breath.
It was well over an hour later when he finally left the roof, shivering and stiff from the cold, and made his way back to his chambers. But when he opened the door to his chambers, his heart fell into the pit of his stomach. He instantly knew he was not alone.
Even without seeing her, he knew who it would be. And in his heart he knew it was the Queen's cruelest barb yet.
She sidled out from behind the door, dressed in a skimpy red outfit that barely left anything to the imagination. Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes were hazy and she was breathing heavily – already well under the influence of Lust or Desire. And in her hand, she held a bottle of the dark red liquid.
"Kate." Her name escaped his lips as a groan.
They had only kissed, only touched. In the few brief times they had been able to steal away, it had only been to the rooftop, relatively concealed but certainly not private. And while Cruz had fantasized about their first time together, his Kate, drugged and sent as a courtesan of the Queen, was definitely not his fantasy. It was more his worst nightmare.
Kate took a few slow steps toward him, the bottle of Lust dangling from her fingers. Cruz retreated, trembling slightly. He could see the door just to his right, not even fully closed, and everything in him wanted to throw it wide open and run from this nightmare.
But he couldn't. He knew he couldn't. The Queen had killed Ella because he had rejected her. He couldn't give the Queen the chance to do that to Kate.
But still, as Kate pressed herself against his body, he took another step back. "Kate, I..." He swallowed hard as his traitorous body started to respond. Kate pressed herself against him again, and whimpered slightly.
He pushed her away, held her at arm's length. And that's when he saw it. Her beautiful green eyes were hazy and wanton, but her cheeks were wet with tears.
His heart broke and he pulled his Kate into a tight, protective embrace. She pushed herself against him again, needing the contact. He groaned as his trousers started to feel restrictive.
"Kate, I'm so sorry," he murmured into the top of her head.
He felt her pull back, ever so slightly, though her hip didn't break contact with him. "Cruz," she whimpered. "Please." She looked up at him, and raised the bottle of Lust to his lips.
Cruz reluctantly swallowed, feeling the heat as the tea flowed down his throat, igniting a fire in his abdomen that swiftly spread outward through his entire body. "I'm sorry," he managed once more, before crushing Kate against the wall and crashing his mouth into hers.
...
He came awake in the night, feeling drained and exhausted, the last of the Lust utterly spent. At first he didn't know what had woken him, but then he felt the bed dip beside him, and the feel of soft lips against his.
Something warm and wet dripped onto his face, and he heard a voice very softly whisper, "I'm so sorry, Cruz."
His eyes flew open, but she was gone.
...
AN: I didn't want to turn this story into an M rating, but am working on an extended scene for this chapter that (if it turns out well) I will post on its own.