Chapter 6 Ah, There Is No Way Out, Is There?
Maeve would have loved to feel shocked that her plan didn’t go through, but she didn’t.
In all honesty, she hoped she would fall from the extremely high floor, land on solid ground— she hoped the death would be quick. And painless, something she wouldn’t even notice and just slip into the other side. Happy. Resting.
But no. She fell in the arms of someone on a horse.
And that person just HAD to be the Duke.
The moment she landed on him, the screen began to flash a trope over its screen but it didn’t even type fully before he shoved her to the floor, demanding the other knights around him to arrest and take her to the dungeon.
For no reason, by the way, just say everyone’s on the same page.
Maeve found herself rising to her feet and using a voice she didn’t think she could conjure as she said with fake stuttering, “O-Oh, my dear Duke. Forgive me. You see, the test was very— very exhausting. Yes. And I looked out of the window in my state of depression, and lo and behold, I saw your g-gorgeous face—”
The other knights gasped.
Adrian looked slightly disgusted.
Maeve didn’t give up. “And n-naturally, as any normal woman would, I— I swooned. And fell. Over. I mean— out of the window— and voila!”
At that point, the other knights were clapping. Some even looked teary eyed as they turned to face the Duke to hand out congratulations, already wishing him a happy married life.
She didn’t try to correct them naturally, grateful that she had stopped whatever was going to happen because she knew in her guts that he would happily lock her up in the dungeon forever if he had to for whatever reason.
But when he got down from his horse and walked to her, she hoped he would be at least nice to her.
He was not.
Maeve held back a scream as he shoved her back into the Queen’s room, an act that had her almost stumbling though thankfully— or not thankfully, she couldn’t be sure— she fell into the Queen’s arms who was just elated to catch her. “Adrian, dear, I told you to be more careful with women. You might have grown without maternal love but you aren’t just like every other brute on the street, are you?”
Somehow, her tone of voice reminded Maeve of her previous boss who was constantly saying the sweetest things to get working more overtime hours.
A shudder flashed through Maeve’s spine.
This woman was the Devil.
A loud pinging sound echoed through the air as NACE reappeared, new words flashing on its screen, \[NICKNAME UPDATED: DEVIL\]
\[ELDORIA E ESPERANZA. QUEEN OF AELTHERRA. RANK- S+. MOST POWERFUL BEING CURRENTLY? AFFINITY: RARE??? APPROVAL RATING: 1000+\]
Reading that last part felt like a shot to Maeve’s heart as the world around her began to blur while her legs weakened.
“She must feel unwell, Mother. She just fell from a terrifying height,”
Cassian’s voice rung out from a corner of the room. The sound of his shoes echoed as he got closer, an act that suddenly had the system flashing another message, \[INCOMING. TRIPPING AND GETTING CAUGHT TROPE ACTIVATED\]
She shot back upright. “I AM FINE! NO NEED FOR TOUCH, PLEASE!”
\[TROPE SUBVERTED\]
\[YOU GET A PENALTY FOR SUBVERTING A TROPE. IT IS ELEVEN NOW\]
Maeve didn’t care. The last person she wanted to be in the arms of was Cassian anyway.
“Mhm. Someone is in here with us. I don’t like that,” Almost as if she could see it, the Queen swiped her hands directly at where NACE was hovering, and as soon as she did that, it began to glitch and disappeared. Immediately that happened, she propped her hands together and said with a smile, “Yes. Where was I? Cassian, love, you know you shouldn’t be touching a woman like that. She can stand on her own, can she not?”
No one looked surprised by her outburst. If anything, Cassian had a lazy smile as he began to move away, his hands behind his back, "Forgive me, Lady Montague.”
“Oh, you can do better than that. Show her how sorry you can be,”
Oh, god.
Even though he was still glowing far too much, it was bearable enough for her to notice Cassian looked smug— too smug for Maeve’s liking as he grinned in a way that made her far too aware that she was still a woman and he could stir certain biological feelings she was sure had died many years ago. “I would like to invite you to dinner with my family. As a show of my appreciation,”
Too fast. Too fast.
Alarm signals blared in Maeve’s head like a siren and she was sure she would pass out soon. Still, she couldn’t afford doing that. There was nothing she would love more than just fainting and calling it a day, but she highly doubted the Queen was going to let her go.
She’d probably wake up, find Cassian naked next to her and when she blinked again, she’d be carrying three children and everyone knew children meant no rest whatsoever.
She turned to the Duke.
Unsurprisingly, the man reminded her of Batman as he stood in a corner like he was trying to blend in with the shadows— which he would have done well if Maeve didn’t already know that technique (she did this almost her entire life to avoid conflict) but the moment her eyes fell on him, he glared at her.
Ah, babies had cried seeing her face. She had survived way worse than him!
Maeve glared back, narrowing her eyes . Of course, she couldn’t see her reflection, but if she could, she’d see that she looked exactly like a demon just crawled out of hell and was ready to drag anyone else down with her to its bottomless fiery pits.
It struck something in Adrian— something so deep that he shuddered and found himself walking towards her before he could stop himself, “Your Majesty. You should step away, I believe she is possessed,”
Maeve rolled her eyes so hard she could have seen the back of her head. “I can’t even feel insulted because I’ve heard that like ten times already today,”
Adrian’s hand was already wrapped tightly around her arm, squeezing so hard Maeve was sure it would leave a bruise— she didn’t complain, it could be a good excuse for avoiding leaving her room in the future.
“Possessed?” Cassian asked, tilting his head with an amused smile on his face.
“Yes, your highness,” Adrian bowed slightly.
“Perhaps you send her home to rest?” The Queen suggested. Whatever happiness she had been selling vanished and she regained that same regal composure she had in the throne room. “Please, Adrian, send her home safely. And Cassian, come. We need to have an overdue conversation,”
And so did Cassian’s mood. It dropped slightly, even causing the glow to dim a bit as if this was something he knew he would not enjoy, like something that could cause him some sort of pain.
Maeve could feel her interest grow, curiosity almost causing her to ask if he was okay but before she could do that, Cassian was raising the back of her hand and placing a small kiss on it. “I await meeting you again, Lady Montague,”
Disgust shot up her arm to her spine as she shuddered the second he let her go. Adrian didn’t let that moment last long as he dragged her out immediately, saying, “Come.”
Maeve’s arm hurt as she was being dragged away but she didn’t dare let out a single sound of complaint. She stayed quiet until they had walked a few steps away from the Queen’s room before he pulled her into a corner, slammed her into the wall and demanded in a voice that made her certain her desire for death would soon be granted. “Who are you and why are you in this body?”