Her Escape

Hey everyone. This was just how I imagined life after "Tithe" happened. It is told both from Kaye's POV and Roiben's, so the chapters will alternate between the two. I hope ya'll enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Anyone who wants to beta, please contact me. Everyone else, please R&R. The more love I get, the more motivation to write!
~Sonhadora
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Kaye:

Kaye woke to the feeling of long fingers squeezing her body and sizing up her arms, legs, and waist. The extra joint in the fingers made the feeling both surreal and creepy, causing her to jolt awake. Staring blankly for a moment, Kaye's midnight black eyes caught the equally black eyes of a short, bird-like creature covered almost entirely in draping cloth. With a snarl, Kaye's green-tinted skin flushed emerald on her cheeks, and she jumped on the smaller faery and rapidly pinned the woman by the neck. "What have I told you about being in my rooms while I sleep, Skillywidden?" she hissed out in her soft-as-ash voice. Skillywidden didn't even flinch as the Unseelie Queen stared deeply into her eyes, no doubt anticipating a trembling and grovelling breakdown.

"My Queen, I have come to size you for your new dress for the Tithe," the creature said, an odd clicking and grunting turning her words almost unintelligible. A soft sigh escaping her, Kaye's hand loosened its grip around Skillywidden's neck, dropping the woman to the floor. After dusting her drapery off, the creature eagerly and efficiently resumed sizing Kaye's thin, elongated limbs and lithe figure. In just moments, the seamstress scuttled out of the room, not even bothering to bow as she slammed the door hard enough to knock some wood off of the arched ceiling.

Glaring balefully at the door, Kaye slumped back onto her bed, their bed. Too bad Roiben hadn't graced it since the night of his coronation. Or rather, the night where Kaye killed the prior Unseelie King and allowed Roiben to take power. Since that time, she had been in a never-ending flurry of courtly matters, constantly having to learn about the fae courts with their many intrigues and oddities. As a pixie, she ought to have been a low-ranking fae in terms of royalty, especially since she didn't even know her parents' names or positions in power. However, because she was the Unseelie King's chosen Queen, she was treated as the rightful queen of the court and given every privilege. Every privelege except one, that is - she'd not been allowed Ironside since Naphamael's death.

That night, Corny had returned to his trailer in the run-down trailer park where he lived with his mom and stepdad. Thinking about Corny brought Kaye a pang of guilt and sadness. Janet had only been dead for nearly than a year, and still Corny refused to speak about it, even when he visiter her in the brugh. Janet's room in the trailer was now empty, the glamorous clothes with their sequins and feathers rotting in a plastic bag under Kaye's grandmother's porch. In fact, part of the reason why Kaye was so eager to go Ironside was because she wanted to retrieve some of Janet's clothes- not to wear, but to breathe in the smell of cigarettes and hairspray that always followed Janet in a cloud and now lingered in her clothing. The other part of Kaye wanted to see her mother and grandmother. They had to be frantic by now, or they may have even given up hope of finding her now.

Sitting up, wings fluttering softly at her back, Kaye made a resolution to herself. She was going Ironside, Roiben and his rules be damned. There were still solitary fae out there, but they would be bound after tonight. The Samhain was coming and with it the Tithe. Kaye still didn't know what her king was going to do to bind the fae, but she knew he'd do it the right way. No longer were blood sacrifices acceptable, not after the mishap with Kaye, and now Roiben had to devise a new way to make a contract. After tonight it would be safe for her to leave, just for a short time.

A soft knock at the door startled the pixie out of her musings, and she quickly trod to throw open the door. Standing there in her doorway was Roiben, his robes a deep soft blue that reminded her too much of Nicnevin's dress on the night of her death. He gave her a soft smile, one that she'd only seen when he looked at her. This time it failed to sway her emotions; she crossed her arms over her chest and stared at him impatiently. Obviously taken aback at this cold reception, Roiben carefully opened his arms, revealing soft white robes made of an almost transparent silk. Skillywidden had outdone herself this time. Reaching out her hand, Kaye ran her overly long fingers over the smooth fabric, enjoying the sensual feel of it over the sensitive pads of her fingers. She felt his eyes watching her and as she looked up her eyes caught his, their angry onyx depths meeting his cool silver mask, emotionless once again. Smiling viciously at her king, Kaye imitated Skillywidden and slammed the door as hard as she could. She watched through one of the termite-made lattices as bits of wood splinters rained down on his perfectly combed hair. His sigh was defeated as he turned away from the door and swept back down the hallway, his cloak trailing after him regally.

Donning the silky dress that the seamstress had designed for her, Kaye felt like the faery queen she was. It was nice to feel like something in her life was going right, and this dress was definitely right by all meanings of the word. There was no mirror in her underground room, but Kaye could literally feel where the fabric clung to her figure in a sleek yet elegant flow of gossamer. The front of the dress was deeply cut enough to show off her modest bust but high enough to keep her from being indecent. Thinking back to Nicnevin and Silarial's style of dress, Kaye found that she liked her own style of dress better. It was hardly ballroom worthy, but it was beautiful in a simple way, all clean lines. There was nothing extravagant about it, yet it screamed riches and royalty. After pinning her hair back in a low bun and glamouring kohl smudges around her eyes, the pixie queen opened the door to her room and sauntered down the hallway.

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*brugh- Gaelic term for a hillside or the faery domain contained therein