Homelands Pt. 07 Ch. 01

As the hole in her abdomen slowly closed back up, the woman whimpered. Her isolation wasn't news to her. But being reminded of it still stung. Each and every day, she watched the queen tear her womb out and toss her uterus contemptuously to the ground. That hurt, but not as bad as the rest of what the queen did to her. Forgetting was worse than any physical pain, and being forgotten was a thousand times worse still.

"They're not even looking for you, you know," Titania reminded her, as she did each and every day. "And why should they? So far as they know, you've gone into exile. Safe and sound, if far away. They've no idea that you're right here, where they could help you if they but knew to do so. If they but thought to check on you."

The woman knew better than to believe the things the queen left unsaid. Not once had Titania come right out and said that her family didn't love her. But she implied it. Constantly. And there mere possibility that she might be right cut deep.

The queen might not know it to be true, and in not knowing would never speak the words. But that didn't mean it wasn't true.

"Enough, my sweet," said another voice.

A deep voice. A rich, commanding, voice. Yet one that also bespoke warmth and kindness, qualities the queen could never fathom.

The woman might only have imagined those things to be true. He'd never once proposed letting her go free. Never stopped the suffering for long. But even so, she couldn't allow herself to believe that his kindness was just part of some good-cop, bad-cop routine, meant to drive her mad. The woman was sure that this handsome prince was unlike his mother.

He had to be.

"I've only just begun," the queen protested.

The prince laid a hand on her shoulder, and Titania whimpered. In the presence of her son, the mother of cruelty and goddess of pain became a wilting flower.

He was no taller than most, and shorter than many. Yet he was desirable beyond words. The woman who remembered so little did not think she'd ever seen such a face. Strong and noble, undeniably masculine, yet painfully gorgeous too. His waist might not even have been thicker than her own, but his shoulders were nearly as wide as he was tall. Thick muscles bulged where they should, though he was shockingly slim and narrow in all the right places.

The prince wrapped his arms around his mother's waist, which was far narrower than his own. "If you don't come back with me, I'll just have to take you here."

A wicked grin spread across Titania's now purple lips. "Maybe I'd like that."

"Maybe she would," the prince replied, flicking gray eyes towards their captive.

The queen groaned. "Ugh. Maybe she would." Bright pink eyes stared up at the woman. "You'll not get a show from me, wench."

The prince's eyes regarded the woman. Whether that look conveyed the apology for Titania's deeds that the woman imagined it to almost didn't matter. Then he led his mother away from the grove, and, for a time, the woman was left to remember, as best she could, the fleeting faces of her kin.