'n' make ye my Queen.” The moment he finished with the word queen I gasped, making him grin against the shell of my ear when feeling me shudder for himself.
“Oh, Trice, I can’t…” he pulled back a little at the sound of my nervousness and took hold of my chin once more, doing so now to prevent me from turning my head away like I tried to do. Then he told me,
“One word is all is needed... just one word, Amelia, 'n' I wull mak' ye mine, always remember that.” After this and what I knew was his solemn vow, I nodded my head in what little space he gave me to do so. This was before he finally took a much needed step back, now that he had told me what he desired of me.
I had so many questions and none of them were about being his Queen, but only about him being King and claiming the throne he spoke of. However, because of what had happened between us I didn't have the right and more importantly, I didn't want him getting the wrong impression by my asking.
As it was now clear to me that just because Trice had seen me with Lucius, it didn't mean that he was ready to give up on trying to claim me for his own. And to be honest, with a man like Trice, I would have been tempted had I not already been utterly in love with Lucius. Tempted had my soul not already been claimed, locked and merged with his own, for I honestly could never imagine myself with anyone else other than Lucius. There was no-one but him. Lucius was my everything, and right now all I needed to do was to get back to him. In fact, that felt like my life’s motto at the moment, as all I ever had to do was get back to him!
But I didn't say any of this to Trice because I didn't want to hurt him. Whether that decision was right or wrong, I didn’t know, but in my heart all I could think was that there was no point inflicting pain where it was not needed. Meaning it was like Trice had said, he needed only one word from me to be enough to give him the go ahead and claim me. Just one word that I honestly could promise to both myself and any God that could hear me, that it was one that I would never say…
Yours.
After this, I felt him reach behind me close to my waist and the moment I felt space created behind my back, I knew he was opening the door. It meant this was also my cue to get my ass inside to put even more space between us. I liked Trice, I really did, but I was in love with Lucius, which meant that times like this spent alone with him caused me nothing but guilt. Because despite how innocent it was from my side, I knew that Lucius at this moment in time was no doubt in his castle waiting for my return and worrying about me every second we were apart. And my being here alone with Trice didn't feel fair… at all.
It was of little wonder then, that the second I stepped inside I released a breath of relief and quickly hurried over to where I had hidden the Eye of Janus. I used the loose nail that was raised up from the plank, as it had been how I'd found the hiding spot in the first place. After pulling up the floorboard, I continued to pull up the next and then the next until the gap was big enough for me to free the Eye from its hiding space. It was still covered in the torn piece of the harpy Queen’s skirt, wrapped up like a present I couldn’t wait to hand over to Lucius.
Trice took one look at it and grabbed what looked like a discarded sack that had been used for carrying kindling to the room for the fireplace. He gave it a shake and then held it open so that I could put the Eye inside, purposely looking away from it as I did so. I didn’t need to ask why as the myth of this thing was obviously enough to have people wary of it, even powerful beings like Trice.
I pulled on the rope and knotted it so it wouldn't come open, and then used