Dragon's Love with Dangerous Letters

Chapter 8

Artemis's cloak was beginning to become useless in this cell. Her feet were freezing last night as she tried to spend another night in this stone cell. It also didn't help that what she had underneath was a light material spaghetti strapped dress. It was what Artemis had on when she quickly slipped from her home two nights ago. Her clothing hadn't been the first thing on her mind and she wasn't expecting she'd be locked up in a cell for this long.

Waking up at what she guessed was an early hour the brunette sat up in her cell, her back screaming in pain as she did. She watched the sun rise like she did the previous morning with nothing else to do. Finding a stone in the corner of her cell she tried to use it to break the chain that connected her cuffs. Not once had the guards thought or made a move to take them off every time they came to give her the small plate of food they served to their prisoners which lead her to shifting herself so she could bend over to grab the bread roll on the plate with her teeth. It ticked her off even more as she was forced to listen to the guard laughing at her as he watched her attempt picking up the bread. It made her want to sew his lips shut permanently.

"Artemis? Are you awake?" The voice of her blue-haired friend sounded from a crossed the hall.

"Yeah I'm up." The said girl replied still trying to reach her goal in freeing her arms.

"It's no use to try and break those cuffs. PhantomLord is known to have a good metal supply. There are mines nearby that they get it from and the metal they use to make these cuffs is made of the strongest metal they've found so far. Juvia is afraid that there is no way to break them." The teen still dressed in her torn maid outfit informed Artemis.

"That's just great." Artemis muttered to herself dropping the stone in her hand and giving up after hearing Juvia's statement.

Sighing, Artemis fell over and pressed her face against the cell floor. There was no hope in getting out unless by some miracle Natsu, Sting, or one of their fathers managed to come down here and find her and Juvia in these cells. The little show King Jose pulled yesterday was still irking Artemis greatly, the way he pretended that no one was down here in this dusty, dark dungeon. She didn't understand how the people who lived in this kingdom could just stand by and let all of this happen, how they could just watch all of the people here be tortured by their terrible king without making a move to stop him. She understood though that they could be scared to have the same fate be bestowed upon them but didn't they all realize that if they all stood up against him at the same time they might have a chance to stop him? It confused her and the more she thought about it the more enraged she became.

Pulling her from her thoughts the sound of the dungeon door creaked open and footsteps followed after like they did every time. Artemis pushed herself up onto her knees and waited until Jose and two guards who accompanied him stood right in front of her cell door. A deriding smile was decorating Jose's face as the guards unlocked her cell's door. Each one gripped one of her arms tightly and shoved her to her feet, the brunette stumbling forward so that she stood directly in front of the green eyed king.

"I hope you've spent your last two days in this cell remembering your life my dear because you're about to see the last few minutes of it." The elder sneered in her face which earned him a dangerously low growl from Artemis.

One of the guards came up behind her and picked her up throwing the brunette over his shoulder. She tried to kick and yell in protest not wanting to be carried like some five year old but none of them listened. Her green eyes flicked around wildly stopping and connecting with another pair of eyes that belonged to the bluenette. Artemis could see how nervous Juvia was as she watched them drag her away. Watching the teen scramble to her feet panting as she struggled Artemis was confused as to what Juvia could possibly be trying to do though what happened next wasn't what she wanted to hear.

"Stop! I'll take her place!"

Artemis widened her eyes and shook her head violently at Juvia. The guard carrying her halted and Jose turned making his way to Juvia's cell, the other guard following him. Juvia's cell door slammed open and the next thing Artemis saw was the bluenette slung over the other guards shoulder. She screamed at him to put her down but every scream was completely useless as they ignored her requests to leave the maid alone. They carried both girls to the dungeon entranced before sealing there mouths with cloths to keep them quiet. Tears slipped down Juvia's face and it was killing Artemis to see her new friend like that, so small and so scared even if it was her decision to try and help Artemis out of this mess.

The castle's décor helped to set the mood, dark halls, dark rugs, gray stone walls that had many portraits of Jose hung on each one of them. Artemis assumed that this guy was completely obsessed with looking at himself if he needed this many photos of him hung on the castle walls. It disgusted her and she scowled harder at each one that they passed. Making a turn Artemis found herself being carried down a smaller hallway, one that seemed to be hidden and what could have been awfully dark if it weren't for the torches suspended up on the walls. Artemis caught a glimpse of another photo but this one was more pleasant and had no trace of Jose anywhere. A man and a small boy stood next to each other, both with black hair and red eyes. The boy seemed grumpy and had a sour look expressed onto his face while the man looked dignified and stood proud, a silver crown upon his head which looked to be made of metal. His ears were pierced from top to bottom and metal rivets were scattered throughout his elegant outfit. Artemis had an instinctive thought to know who both of those people were. It was Gajeel as a boy and his father, the real king of PhantomLord who, if she recalled correctly, was named Metalicana. If only he were still here, Gajeel's father, then maybe Artemis and Juvia wouldn't have to be going through this, maybe even her cousin would have been allowed to come and visit her and she wouldn't have had to take this ridiculous trip. The brunette screwed her eyes shut at this thought as warm tears slowly rolled themselves down her cheeks.

It took another minute or so before they had reached the end of the hall. Artemis heard a door being unlocked and pushed open as her and the bluenette were dragged into a pitch black room. It took a few moments before a few windows in the back of the room were opened to let some light in. The guards dropped her to the floor harshly before following Jose to the other side of the room. There waiting was two more guards, one holding chains and a lock and the other a large axe who had the morning sunlight glinting off of it. Heart began to gain more beats per minute as she watched Juvia being carried closer to those chains and that axe. The brunette pushed herself to her feet and chased after them but her attempts were useless as one of the guards turned and picked her up once more preventing her from getting any closer.

"NO! She didn't do anything! Stop!" Artemis screamed this repeatedly after shifting her mouth out of the cloth hoping they would listen to her but the chances of that happening weren't very large.

"The girl decided to give her life up for you. It was her own stupid decision so now I'm going to have you watch as she dies for the sake of keeping you alive." Jose stated easily as if this were actually entertaining, but of course this would be for someone as sick as him.

The guard dropped Juvia and held her in place as the one holding the chains tied the around her and locked them in place. The bluenette locked her eyes with Artemis, a glint of happiness rushing through them as Artemis looked back. This left the brunette utterly confused. Why would she be happy when she was about to die, having her head chopped off by an axe for crying out loud! Artemis watched the guard raise his axe, it's currently clean blade glimmering in the sunlight innocently before it was swung down.

"JUVIA!"

Splat!

Artemis screwed her eyes shut not wanting to look at what was in front of her. She only knew the girl for two days that may have been true but she still cared for her. The girl knew her cousin, she knew Celestine and she seemed so innocent. Juvia didn't do anything to deserve this and yet her body sat their lifeless and headless. The brunette felt her tears stream down harder as she flung her head up and snapped her eyes open to scowl at Jose.

"You sick, heartless, and disgusting creature! You're not even worthy of being called a human! What you do to innocent human lives should be done to you instead! You don't deserve to be called a king!" She screamed, her rage that was bottled being let out all at once.

The teen felt a hand collide with her face, the hand of the guard who had been holding her back. She fell backwards at a quick pace and hit the back of her head against the stone floor. Artemis screamed out in pain and rolled herself to her stomach and tried dragging herself towards the door. The guard slammed a foot onto her back preventing her from moving as Jose angrily made his way to her probably with intentions of murder for what she had said but before that man even made it halfway to her she heard the door creak open telling her that someone new had joined them. Artemis's eyes met the figure along with the others who had been standing in this room, all except her dead friend up on the pedestal. Her eyes widened and three more tears slipped out, but they slipped out in relief this time as she saw who it was.

"What's going on in here?" The newcomer asked, his sapphire eyes meeting Artemis's emerald ones.

". . . Sting. . ."