Raquel knuckles hurt as she threw the door another loud bang.
This wasn't the first time she would be knocking the door, it had been going in for a while without an answer.
She went for another knock again, while whispering through her quivering lips. "Your Majesty?"
Then, abruptly, she stopped.
He wasn't inside.
Why hadn't she thought of that before?
There was no response because he wasn't in his chambers.
She turned around swiftly then stopped as her gaze lingered on the stairs for a while, her breath shaky with a thought.
She would have to look for him, maybe even go inside the dungeon.
The urge to involve Colin came back stronger than before. She feared the dungeon even more because of the presence of the dragon.
That place was a deathtrap.
The thought of her Mistress and the devasting state she must be in, flashed in her mind, and she bit her trembling lips, her whole body suddenly feeling shaky.
She would risk it. Maybe sacrificing her life would help her conscience and make her stop having those disturbing dream---
"Raquel." The sharp voice behind her stopped her in her tracks. Her hand clenched around the stairway railings. Now that she had been snapped right out of her thoughts, she noticed the other was holding a torch and she was headed to the dungeon. She had been moving so mindlessly that she didn't even know when she had gotten here.
With an unsure movement, she took a further step down.
"Raquel!" This time around, the voice sounded just as sharp but worried now, and a hand was wrapped around her hand that was holding the torch, stopping her from moving any further.
"Co--lin."
The frown that was etched into his face made her heart pound.
"What are you doing?"
The deep echo of the Dragon's growling a good distance away from them echoed to them and Raquel's eyes went wide in fear, her chest raising and falling quickly as words stumbled over each other, pushing through her lips.
"The Bride... My Mistress.... She---"
"They are none of our business. 'She' is none of our business, so 'you' stay out of it."
"I... I...can--not." She tried to go around him but he stepped into her tracks and stopped her.
"You will stay out of whatever is going on with the King's Bride and take care of yourself instead."
Raquel looked over his shoulders, to the dark stairway ahead. She didn't have time for this. She had to go and see the King for her Mistress's sake. Her Mistress wasn't safe and she had to help her.
"I've been taking car--"
"You lied to me." He snapped, moving a bottle that contained content that was too dark to see what was in it with the torch they had in their hands. "You haven't been taking your herbs."
As much as this confrontation was putting her into fear, she was much more worried about her Mistress.
"Co--lin, do.you.know.where.the.king.is.My.Mistress.needs.his.Majesty." With a choke gasp, she dragged in a rough breath for stay alive.
Colin's frown only deepened, his grip around her hand that was holding the torch, tightening.
"Why?" His voice was leveled and Raquel seized the opportunity of his persumed calmness.
"Wavy lines, everywhere! Blood and black things. She--she--"
"You are going crazy." He muttered with fear, the hope in his eyes dwindling as he watched that mad glint in her eyes with each subtle gesture. "You should have taken your herbs."
"They make me forget things." She protested, finally feeling the need to speak on that, overpowering her.
"They help you stay sane." His voice sounded pained, like he was speaking to a child over and over again to do what they must for their own sake. He sounded tired but his next action didn't so much as give that away.
Colin yanked the torch out of her hand, hanging it on the wall swiftly, then throwing her over his shoulder like she weighted nothing.
"No, please, Co--lin. Believe me. My Mistress needs--"
"Keep quiet! I'm taking you to her."
Raquel felt silent for a moment before her grip tightened on Colin, her voice laced with betrayal.
"No. You... promised."
Colin's step didn't flatter, neither did he stop for a second.
"You promised!"
"Lady Kestra will get rid of your insanity once and for all."
"Colin. You promised me." Her voice sounded choked with tears, her worry now completely vanished as she worries more about herself and the situation she had found herself in.
Colin hated to hear his wife crying, but being certain that he was on the right path was all the encouragement he needed.
He frowned, his grip tightening around her waist
"I'm doing this for you."
___
Belladonna's hand tightened around the edge of the table. "The dragon?"
The screams that floated into her ears from downstairs answered her question. She could barely hear them but it was certain that it was a chaos down there, screams that emanated from creatures because of the horrors that had been faced with and not shouts of a party going well.
She couldn't run downstairs then.
Belladonna looked around for anywhere she could hid and angry words poured out of her mouth to the Bride Thief at her growing rage and devastation.
"Control the dragon."
"I can't." He sounded further away from her and it made her feel better that he wasn't hovering. Her hands were itching from the urge to strangle him and she would love to entertain the thought that she wasn't doing that because he was too far away for her to reach, not because she just couldn't.
"That one too?" She scoffed, pulling out a piece of glass out of her arm. "How pathetic can you get?"
"Don't speak to me like that human. Of all the brides, you have been the most difficult."
Belladonna's eyes roamed the room, there isn't really anywhere to hid. Most of the shelf she would have wanted to seek refuge with had fallen to the ground.
Anger boiled in her veins at her helplessness and her frown deepened, spite growing from an unknown place deep within her heart.
The Bride Thief would certainly find his death in her hands. She would make sure of that.
Belladonna might have gotten lucky with the witch and the scaly man but how was she supposed to deal with a dragon?
"Difficult for you to use. Your desperation led us--" Belladonna's voice fell silent as her gaze landed on something she hadn't observed before.
There were no longer any noise from downstairs.
Guided by some instincts, she looked at the door and what met her eyes was the gigantic eye of the dragon, piercing into the room and looking straight at her.
Pupil like long deep blue lines, while red lines like lightening stretched out of them to the rest of it's eye.
Her breath deserted her.
She suddenly just couldn't figure out how to breathe, and she felt completely at the mercy of the one who owned this gigantic terrifying reptilian eye.