ᴋᴇɪᴀʟ'ꜱ ᴘᴏᴠ

"So, have we reached an agreement?" Arlen asked, once again.

I wanted to lean over the desk and rip his throat out for merely suggesting such an insulting request to avoid the tragedy of war, but then again, I found it insulting that I was made to come here in the first place.

"You wish to lay with a servant." I sighed and stared blankly at his smiling face.

"Explain to me again why this is your top priority and not the safety and survival of your people?"

Arlen laughed, which only made me want to kill him more, to smash his face against this stupid table until he couldn't smile ever again, the thought kept me from doing that very thing.

"You're a King, you can't surely expect to keep him, can you? You will marry and have heirs." Arlen sighs, leaning back in his chair.

"If he is nothing more than a warm body to you to avoid marrying some uptight wealthy lord's daughter, then this should be nothing to you." He smirked, making my jaw clench. tightly.

"It seems you forget yourself, Arlen." I look down at him, as his eyes fill with interest.

"You are soon to be wed yourself, are you not? Unless you continue to anger me further, I'd hate to make your future bride a widow."

"Oh." He chuckled. "So you heard of that."

"I figured since you ignored my invitation, that you didn't know."

I did ignore it, and once I was told I couldn't have cared less that this man was to be wed, if anything I almost felt sorry for the woman who was to be bound to this pathetic man-child.

"Enough." This was getting nowhere.

"If fucking a male servant, who happens to be my lover really how you wish to destroy the last remaining of your people?" I asked him seriously, as his eyes went to mine.

There was silence before he smiled and then hummed.

"No." He eventually said.

"But it does amuse me you found someone who you suddenly cling to so desperately, almost like he's not just 'some male servant'."

"Perhaps you're playing the boy for something much bigger... let's say... love?"

I couldn't help but snort out with laughter at his serious face, which was slowly starting to crumble as he stared at me across the table.

"Love?"

What a stupid thing to say, but I expected nothing less from a man who was bred with a lunatic father of a King, from a race of people who didn't know the first thing about the word.

I had enough of this talk, I had better things to do, and it's already been a week of negotiations, coming here was starting to seem like a big waste of my time.

I could've just wiped them out, but instead, I was amused by the suggestion of coming here first, and the thought of having another war bored me to death with how simple, and easy it would be.

"Felix is mine, love has nothing to do with what he is to me." I got up from my seat and looked down at him pitifully.

"I use him how I want, I fuck him how I want, and until I don't want him anymore, I'm getting rid of him how I want, love is for fools with death wishes, something you should know much about."

Arlen's eyes harden as he stands abruptly, causing his chair to fall over as he glares at me, making me scoff and turn around to leave.

"If you truly think this way, then do you accept my proposal?" He asked, as I grabbed my sword and then tied it to my belt.

"You have had your fun, now it is the time to look to the future, and who knows, perhaps we could call ourselves family once again."

Within a split second, I close the distance between us, wrap my hand around his neck, and smash the back of his head into the hardwood desk in front of him, making him groan out in pain as I glare at the back of his head.

"Family?" The word was like venom on my tongue.

"Never say that word to me, you're lucky to be alive, and you'd do well to thank me for that!" I snarled, before banging his head into the desk once more, before letting go of him.

"I... feel sorry for you." Arlen laughed, as he held his head and looked up at me through blood dripping down his face.

"You... you don't even see it, but you care... for Felix, otherwise... why stay this long?"

Not wanting to hear another word, I push open the doors and leave the room, my blood boiling and my jaw permanently stuck in a clench, with a thousand different ways of how I could kill Arlen playing through my head.

What nonsense was he talking about, and bringing Felix into this too?

Me, love Felix?

What did that have to do with him, or anything for that matter?

It was true that I was using Felix to put an end to marrying some dimwitted snobby-nosed woman, and then having to father offspring to replace my position, the whole thing angered me to no end.

The council was highly opposed to male relationships within the royal household, so the moment I laid eyes on Felix, a good-looking young man, I used him to get what I wanted, which only now seems like I did out for reasons I don't understand.

Everything had gone according to my plan, I shouldn't care what happened to Felix.

He had done his job so well that even Arlen had been blinded by my performance just now.

Felix was going to get what he wanted, and in the end, this arrangement will be over.

It will be... over?

The thought felt foreign and left an empty hole inside of me at the thought of whatever Felix and my relationship was.

I had grown too fond of him, even seeking him out in the servant quarters at night just to sleep with him, something I had never done before.

He amused me, infuriated me, yet, I couldn't deny that something about him set me at ease.

It's been a month, and I had made it very obvious, and loud enough to all those who could hear that I was in a deep relationship with Felix, even so that the council had stopped bringing up marriage entirely.

It's been over a week since they stopped sending women of wealthy families and they had dropped the subject of heirs entirely, and once I knew this was it, that I had won, I had cleared Felix's name entirely, and all the charges against him dropped.

He was free to come and go as he pleased, but the thought didn't please me.

It unsettled me.

If Felix left, I'd only prove Arlen right, that he wasn't just some servant.

Felix was, in my way, someone I didn't want to let go of.

If what I felt for him was love, then he'd need protection for the rest of his life, something I knew he valued or else he would never agree to the terms of my deal with him.

I didn't want that for him, he had proved his worth to me, and there was no other need for amusement to drag this on any further for my benefit.

I had to make a decision, Arlen's proposal was a laughing joke, and something he played just to see what I felt about Felix, something that I saw coming a mile away.

I missed his face, and that shy blush when I would touch him, and so badly wanted to just leave this place to return just to see him.

I just wanted a little longer with him before I let him go, perhaps then I can get rid of these silly thoughts I have of him and put an end to this bargain once and for all.

"Your majesty?" One of my guards greeted me, as I stepped foot outside the ugly white castle of Arlan's family home that only brings back bad memories.

I felt lighter, somewhat excited to go back, I had gotten what I wanted, and most of all, I was going to keep my word, I was going to let Felix go, once I had him, just one last time.

Just once, so then this can be all over until he is nothing more than a passing memory.

"We're done here, take me back."