Villainess Of Hearts

"Your Majesty!" His voice rang out inside the entire hall—purple eyes landing on her shaking form. There she was, the young Knight stumbled towards her and cut through the dark red flames emanating across the castle's walls.

To young Queen reaching her hand out to him, slender fingers stretching out and with a desperate look in her eyes—

He made his way forward and held out his hand only to have something flare out.

The inferno blazed even hotter as it swept and danced across between them, as if performing a wall to protect itself. Julius Ginellevé gritted his teeth, the shouts of the soldiers all around the place and even them working to put out the fire but it was useless.

Julius couldn't save her—something flickered in his vision. Something in the darkness and the shadows that he hadn't even noticed that it was there, but it held out the fire with its own strength. Darkness and shadows, with enough space for him to move there and get to the Queen to save her?

. 

.

.

The accident in the castle that had sprung up a couple years ago was far more dangerous than what was happening right now, but the way his heart jumped out of his chest was very much the same. 

She had left him at the dinner table.

It tightened his heart painfully and twisted it in ways that even he couldn't explain.

He had forced himself to stay there for only so long, and even then it was a hard thing to ask for. The looks thrown his way by the Joker only made his blood rise, that man's loyalty could not be exactly discovered and be placed for one person. And yet it was enough for him to read from that twinkle in his eye that the man had wanted the King and Queen to leave?

Was this his method of matchmaking?

An obnoxious way, and if it wasn't his way of pairing up the King and Queen… was it only to see him struggle futilelessy at the side? Whether it had been the glares that he threw the man's way, the Joker ended up draining all of his wine as he finally said. "I think we can end the dinner already, I'm already stuffed."

There was barely enough before the Knight stood up and left the dining hall—courtesy and everything else be damned. The Prime Minister would not turn a blind eye to it, the Joker had no power over him and the servant could only watch. He made his way out and then glanced left and right.

Perhaps the looks of the Joker had been nothing but some way to taunt him?

That was the most likely thing to occur and there might be nothing for him to even worry about at all. The Queen of Hearts would not search for the King of Hearts, the Joker did not know Rosalyn as much as he did. She hated him too much. Abhorred him even.

She'd tolerate his presence yes, and even defend him if it was necessary.

But she only did it out of obligation. Out of everything that had been ingrained to her even before she had met the King of present times, even before the time when there had been no King, this was what she had been instilled to her. It was hard to fight back on something that one had been told for one's entire life.

Even if it had been a lie.

It was much harder if it was a lie. Julius Ginellevé shook his head and glanced across the hallway and found nobody's presence, he held out a hand to the wall and watched it give way for him. An entrance to travel faster than usual—he took it.

There was only one place where the Queen would go.

Perhaps two, or even three but no more and no less. She would have gone to the kitchen for desserts if Mary Ann had been there, but that was out of the possible locations. She could also head to her office and burn a midnight candle to do work in advance or other duties that she took over—never exactly trusting the King to do it properly despite the years.

Or it could be the Queen's chambers.

Yes, that was the likeliest place to go, the Queen had left—Rosalyn had left to rest. There was nothing else she would do and it was there that he arrived in less than a minute. He exited through the wall just beside the former King and Queen's portrait, an old piece that he brushed over as he made his way to the door.

He knocked once.

"Your Majesty?"

There was no answer.

He blinked. Perhaps she did not wish to see him? No, that wasn't the case was it… she was perhaps already asleep and he had only been frantically worried. Scared to death of what might be. Frightened of what the Joker had implied with his looks. His hand hover slightly over the doorknob to her room.

She had never invited him again.

Was she tired of him?

Did he do something wrong… no. She had already explained it with her dream, took away the chance for him to punish himself and see if there was anything for him to blame. He closed his eyes for a moment. If she was asleep then he would leave, it wouldn't be even known to her that he had checked upon her.

And if it was something else…

His breath hitched slightly, a tremor in his hand as his fingers touched the cold but smooth surface of the handle. If it was something else then he would handle it then, there was no other way around it. Julius Ginellevé opened the door and stepped inside, "Your Majesty?"

He let out a breath.

There was nobody to be seen.

Her bed lay empty and unused, blankets and comforter still folded neatly. 

The musical box unopened in her drawer, the door to her personal bathroom closed and not left slightly ajar whenever she went inside. Nor could he hear her hums or anything like that. The drapes on the windows were still untouched, not yet closed as moonlight spilled into the room.

She most often kept it closed during the night.

It had to be closed whenever the sun no longer shone for her safety. Perhaps she had forgotten to do it, or the maid who arrived to clean up her room when she wasn't around forgot to draw back the drapes. It was a silly mistake. Negligible. Something trifle.

He could turn a blind eye to it.

Maybe the Queen of Hearts had decided that she was thirsty and went to get some water in the kitchen by herself? Even when she was a child in the Lockhart House, she had always been self-sufficient. She didn't exactly like the maids of the household, didn't like how they treated her when compared to her brother. Often thought they didn't do the right job or were too sloppy but she had liked him.

She enjoyed having him around.

She had taken him out of his misery.

And he had relished it so, he was supposed to be nothing. To be no one remarkable. He was to be simply a sword to be thrown away once his usefulness had all but flickered out. And so nothing was small for him, there was nothing trivial or something to be overlooked because it was already good enough.

Everything had to devoid of flaws, perfect, immaculate—

She was outside and basked underneath the moonlight. Her blonde hair cascading down her back like waterfalls over the purest stones, with red eyes that rivaled and even triumphed over the pale moon and stars dotting the dark canopy overhead of her. 

The Queen of Hearts was lovely as she could be—no, beautiful was the proper term. Grand. Majestic. His own perception of her was a reverie and it was a wondrous one. It was something that he could live out his entire life over for, simply gazing on her. 

And yet the vision crumbled.

It was in the very moment that she reached out, looking at him with a small frown on her face. His perception cracked the moment she accepted the hand that the King of Hearts offered to her. The illusion faded away, the mirage shattering at watching him and her hand in hand as the two of them walked side by side—exchanging words together until they reached and arrived back into the castle.

Perhaps if anyone else had seen them at this hour then it would have been a sight to see the King and the Queen together. Did they chance upon seeing a glimpse into the private and romantic life of the two? Have they seen the two stroll through the rose gardens together?

What a lovely sight to be beheld with.

Watching them arrive and head to their castle—in what might have been a fairytale-esque scene. Happily ever after. 

… this was all a figment of his mind wasn't it?