Mixed Feelings
Aurora's POV
The dinner kept going, for hours and hours. The food was still perfect, better than anything on Earth, but the air felt heavy and thick. The other alien Kings, Xy'dar the reptile, the purple smoky guy, and the silent spider, kept staring at me. They were always asking Kraye questions about me.
"She stands up well for a human, Kraye," the spider-like King said. "Does she know how serious her job is?"
"She knows how valuable she is," Kraye corrected, his voice sharp. He watched me like a hawk. He kept putting small, perfect bits of food on my plate, filling my glowing drink, and making sure no one got too close. He treated me like a priceless treasure that needed constant watching.
I tried to listen to their talk. They were scared of Karn.
"Karn won't give up," Xy'dar grumbled, making a scratching sound with his claw on his stone cup. "You took his favorite thing, Kraye. He will destroy this planet just to send a message."
"Then we must make sure his message never gets here," Kraye said, calm as always.
"And how, exactly, do you plan to protect a whole planet with one small human?" asked the smoky purple alien, his voice a strange, low hum.
Kraye smiled that weird, non-human smile. "You don't understand. I don't want her as a shield. I want her as a stop sign."
I didn't like that word, stop sign, it sounded much worse than shield.
The dinner finally started to end. The robots cleared the tables. Kraye stood up from his huge stone chair, and the whole room, including the other Kings, immediately went silent.
He held his claw up, raising his empty cup high. He moved slowly, showing his power.
"My friends, Kings, and allies," Kraye announced, his voice loud in the huge room. "Tonight, you saw how important my new object is. You know that Karn wants her more than he wants to win a war."
He turned slowly, his shiny black armor reflecting the starlight, until he was looking right at me. I could feel every eye in the room burning into my back.
"Aurora is the most beautiful creature in this galaxy. She is the jewel that will keep my kingdom and my people safe. And because of that," he paused, dropping his voice a bit, which made the silence feel even bigger, "I cannot risk her being just a 'guest' or a 'pawn'."
My heart started pounding fast inside my chest. I knew this was going to be bad.
Kraye reached out a claw, not to touch me, but to pick up a small, black velvet box hidden under the table. He opened it in the air. Inside, resting on the velvet, was one perfect, glowing pearl. It shone with all the colors of the rainbow, pulling the light from the whole room into itself.
Kraye looked straight at me.
"I plan to tie our lives together completely," he announced, his voice full of power, not love. "I won't let Karn just take back a prisoner. He must face the fact that Aurora belongs here, forever, with a title he cannot ignore."
Then, he said the final words.
"Therefore, I announce my plan to take Aurora as my Queen. We will be married right away."
The result was huge and sudden.
A single, loud gasp went through the room.
The purple smoke creature suddenly shrank down. Xy'dar’s four hands slammed the table, making a loud crash. The whole room exploded into noise, shouting, and shock.
I just sat there, frozen, staring at the glowing pearl.
“Married?"
I was supposed to be a shield, a stop sign, a beautiful object. I was never supposed to be his wife.
Kraye looked at the shocked faces of his alien guests. He had done exactly what he wanted: caused a massive, unforgettable shock.
"King Kraye, you can't!" Xy'dar yelled, hitting the table again. "Marrying her is fighting Karn head-on! It means war!"
Kraye just smiled again, a cold, scary smile that seemed to say: That's the point.
I looked from the glowing pearl to the angry alien Kings, then back to Kraye. I was no longer a simple prisoner. I was now the forced Queen in a space power game, and no one had even bothered to ask me first.
Shockingly, I was beginning to miss the Alien King.
I found something about him intriguing, captivating and I did not know why.
How odd...
I did not want to be used as a tool to fight against him. Even though he hurt me, I was having a lot of mixed feelings of what to do.
I did not want to be in between two kings.