The Crown Prophecy

by M. D. Laird

  “Eve!” the boy shouted from the kitchen. “Get up!” The girl came down the stairs and looked like she had barely slept and had been crying. “What’s wrong with you?” the boy asked moodily.

  “I have a headache, I haven’t slept well,” she answered groggily.

  “Well, I want breakfast.”

  She started to make him some breakfast and the boy flicked through the newspaper he had carried in with him.

  “How was work?” she asked. He looked up at her and glared before continuing to read the paper.

  “This is the love of her life?” whispered Thalia.

  “This boy can be a nasty piece of work,” Calab answered.

  The girl heard him and glanced nervously in his direction. She placed a cup of coffee and plate of bacon and eggs in front of her fiancé.

  The boy looked from the paper to the food and said, “You’ve overcooked my eggs. You know I have them runny.”

  “Sorry,” she said, “I’ll make you some more. I’m not feeling well.”

  She replaced the eggs and placed the plate in front of him once more.

  “The bacon is cold now!” he snapped.

  “Sorry.”

  “Quit saying you’re sorry. Just get it right first time!” He noticed the wine rack. “There are two bottles of wine missing.”

  “I opened them last night. Hayley came over, and we watched a movie and had wine.”

  “Why didn’t she bring her own wine?” he snapped. “I don’t work to pay for your friends to drink my wine. That explains why you look like crap and why my breakfast is crap. I’m working hard, and you’re drinking my wine with your friend!”

  “I work too; I paid for that wine as well.”

  “Don’t talk back to me.” He snarled and continued to eat his breakfast. The girl sat on the stool opposite him picked at her nails. Calab could sense annoyance emanating from her, but her anger was consumed by the rage emanating from the boy. The boy did not seem to have mellowed in the years since he had seen him last. Calab had never understood what motivated the boy’s rage, but he had never needed to—it wasn’t his job to know that.

  The boy glared at the girl and snapped, “What are you doing? Why are you just sitting there? Go and get dressed or something. You’re so lazy, I bet you’re going to sit around all day and do nothing.”

  “It’s my first day off for eight days,” she replied.

  “I can tell,” he said. “This place is a disgrace.”

  She looked irritated as she glanced around the kitchen. Aside from a few dishes in the sink, it seemed perfectly clean. “It’s my house,” she snapped, “if I don’t want to clean it, I won’t.”

  “This again.” He growled. “You’re happy for me to pay the bills.”

  “You don’t even pay half the bills.”

  “Why should I pay your mortgage?” he said. “I’m paying nothing until I have something in writing that states this is my house.”

  “You’re living here!” she seethed.

  The girl seemed to have forgotten the audience watching her. Thalia looked anxious, Calab could sense her willing the girl to stop arguing and leave with them. He stood silently and unmoved at her side, he was used to such displays as part of his work.

  “You never let me forget it do you?” the boy barked. “Anyone would think you were doing me a favour by letting me live in your house, I’d rather pay ten times more to live somewhere else and not have to put up with you. I’m doing you a favour by marrying you; you think anyone else would have you?” The girl glared at him. “They wouldn’t,” he continued, “nobody wanted you before I met you. Who’s still a virgin at twenty-four?” He laughed. The girl flushed red and appeared to cringe as she cast a glance towards Calab and Thalia. “You can’t even produce a child,” said the boy, sneering. “I don’t even know why I’m wasting my time on you.”

  “So leave,” she shouted.

  “Why?” He growled. “So you can meet someone else? You’ve probably already got someone lined up. Don’t think I haven’t noticed that you’re always flirting with my brother and that idiot next door and Tom at work.”

  “What are you talking about?” She stared at him incredulously. “I have met your brother twice, I’ve spoken to the married guy next door—who is old enough to be my dad—once when he borrowed the hedge trimmer, and Tom is gay.”

  “You’ve an answer for everything, haven’t you?” he snapped, slamming his mug on the table.

  “This is ridiculous,” said the girl who was starting to look embarrassed that Calab and Thalia were listening to their argument.

  Thalia was still anxious for the hostility to end and whispered, “I wish she would just ignore him and not argue with everything he says.”

  Calab looked on, he knew the boy was a brute and knew the girl did too—he admired her having the courage to argue back.

  “I’m going to get dressed,” the girl snapped.

  “Don’t walk away from me.” He snarled, grabbing her arm.

  “Get your hands off me.” She growled, shoving him away.

  The boy lunged at her, and his fist hit her jaw and sent her falling towards the floor. Calab and Thalia leapt towards her, but she shook her head. The boy threw his plate at her, and it smashed beside her head. He approached her.

  “I can stop this,” exclaimed Calab suddenly feeling disturbed by the scene.

  “No!” shouted the girl.

  The brute laughed at her before raising his fist until she hid her face behind her hands. He gave another cruel laugh before pushing her towards the floor and heading up the stairs to sleep as though nothing had happened.

  Thalia moved towards Eve and lifted her from the ground, her jaw had begun to swell, and tears spilt down her cheeks.

  “Is this what you want to stay for? To stay with someone who has you living in fear?” Calab snapped. “I know this boy, I had to work with him five years ago. I did not work with him long as he chose the wrong path by himself and injured a woman so badly she needed hospital treatment.”

  Eve was surprised by the tenderness the demon showed her despite his tone. Even Thalia seemed astonished.

  Eve wiped her tears and said, “It isn’t just him, this is my house, and I love my job, and I want to do my PhD.”

  “You have an extended lifetime to do a hundred PhDs,” said Thalia. “Many of the Procnatus have several degrees, master’s and PhDs, you don’t have to give up on everything, but whatever happens, I would urge you to give up on him.”

  “Yes,” agreed Calab, his voice returning to its usual cool tone, “it’s as Lovecraft says:

  “If you’ll keep cool, and accept the need for making radical readjustments in your life, you can keep right on enjoying the world, and the fruits of your scholarships.”

  Eve raised an eyebrow and said, “Really? You just plucked that out of the air?”

  “He does it a lot.” Thalia smiled. “You’ll get used to it.”

  “Well, Oscar Wilde said quotation is a serviceable substitute for wit.”

  Calab grinned. It was the first genuine smile she had seen from him, and it made him appear much less frightening. “I’m going to get a shower,” she said heading up the stairs.

  Calab and Thalia entered the lounge and sat on the sofa in silence until Eve returned dressed in jeans and a T-shirt with hair her hair wrapped in a towel.

  “Calab,” she said.

  “Prince Calab,” he reminded her.

  “Prince Calab.”

  “Yes?”

  “The last time we met you said I was going to Hell, is that right?”

  “Calab!” exclaimed Thalia.

  Calab shrugged at Thalia, “What?” He turned to Eve. “No, that isn’t true,” he said nonchalantly. “Your fiancé will, though.”

  Eve nodded and rubbed her hair with the towel and said, “I will wait till he has left for work and then pack.”

  “Let’s go out un
til then,” said Thalia. “You can show us the sights of Nottingham.”

  “I can’t go out with this,” Eve said, pointing to her jaw which was beginning to swell.

  “If I can go out with this you can,” said Thalia, pointing to Calab before removing her pocket watch from her purse.

  “You have a speakeasy?” asked Eve.

  “A what?”

  “That’s what Will said his great grandfather called it in the twenties.”

  “Ah, well, we just call it a vox,” said Thalia. “Anyway, shall we go? I know a demon who is keen to try overpriced coffee.”

  “The Imperator has been here,” said Calab, as they returned to Eve’s house at nightfall.

  “What?” asked Eve. “How do you know?”

  “I can smell him.”

  “What about Jason? He could hurt him.”

  “No blood has been spilt. Wait here.”

  He disappeared leaving Eve with Thalia. Eve looked nervously up and down the street as an uneasy feeling she was being watched crept over her. Calab reappeared a few moments later and stated, “The brute is unharmed. He appears to be readying himself for work.”

  “Someone is watching us,” whispered Eve.

  “Yes. I shall take care of them, we can’t have them reporting us to the Imperator.” He disappeared again and reappeared a moment later after a terrible shriek pierced the cold air. “We should go,” he said. “It is not safe to wait any longer.”

  “What about my things?” Eve asked. “I have no clothes.”

  “You’ll have to manage without them. Throw away your mobile phone, too. Let’s go.”

  They piled into the outrider, and after Thalia had programmed the console, an Arkazatine entrance appeared and they were speeding through Arkazatinia.

  “What happens now?” asked Eve nervously. “Will I stay with the Procnatus?”

  “You would be safer with Calab,” replied Thalia. “If the Imperator is using someone, an alchemist perhaps, to trace you, then they have less chance of finding you at a demon guild. Demon and angel souls are not fully anchored in this world and are difficult to locate magically. Your soul should be masked.”

  “Should?”

  “We don’t know for certain,” said Calab, “but either way, I will protect you.”

  Eve did not relish the thought of staying in a house full of demons. She was suddenly filled with panic and cried, “This is a mess. When I don’t turn up for work and my mother doesn’t know where I am, they will think I’m missing. And what about my house and my things?”

  “Don’t worry,” said Thalia. “You can still sort your affairs from Arkazatinia; send your resignation to your work and then a letter to your mother explaining you have gone travelling or something. You can sell your house.”

  “My mother will find it weird if I write to her and call the police, I will need to phone her.”

  “We can arrange that.”

  “How am I supposed to pay my mortgage? Do I get a salary as the Crown? My savings won’t last more than a few months and if my house doesn’t sell quickly… ” She dropped her head into her hands once more as the drastic changes in her life seemed suddenly overwhelming. She couldn’t even think about the danger to her life or that she was supposed to be the queen of another world.

  “Relax,” said Thalia. “Things will work out. We will take care of your house for you.”

  The outrider stopped allowing Eve and Calab to alight at the Guild of Asmodeus before it sped away with Thalia. Charon greeted the prince and Eve at the door, and upon receiving Calab’s instructions, he left to arrange for a room to be prepared and a meal to be taken to the library. The library had not changed since Eve’s last visit, and it was no less spectacular. She sat on the seat by the fire that Thalia had sat on nine years previously and Calab seated himself opposite.

  “I will arrange for a guard to be posted outside your room,” he assured her. Eve gave an uneasy smile. “We will protect you, you’ll be safe here.”

  “What if the guard doesn’t hear them come for me?”

  “We have excellent senses.”

  “Can I not just stay with you?” she blurted and quickly regretted it as she felt her cheeks burn. Calab, too, looked embarrassed. “I’m sorry. I’m scared. I don’t want to be alone.” She also did not wish to trust her safety to a strange demon but thought that better left unsaid.

  “I understand.”

  After they had eaten, Calab showed Eve to the room Charon had prepared for her. It was a luxurious suite with an enormous four-poster bed, a beautiful writing bureau, a small dining table and chairs, and a seating area with armchairs and a sofa. A large open fire was warming the room.

  Calab stood awkwardly by the fireplace. He did not look how she would have expected a demon to look. Before she met Calab, if she believed in demons at all, she would have expected them to be of a slithery or scrawny appearance. However, Calab seemed to be quite an athletic build and dressed elegantly in his black tailoring.

  “This is the nicest room we have,” said Calab. “I don’t know how long you’ll be here for so I want you to be comfortable.”

  “It’s beautiful, thank you.”

  “We have no female clothes I’m afraid. Thalia can bring you some in the morning. Charon has left a shirt on the bed for you to sleep in.”

  “That’s very kind, thank you. Where will you sleep?”

  “I’ll be comfortable enough on the sofa.”

  “I should sleep on the sofa, I asked you to stay.”

  “Nonsense,” he said coolly. “I may not be the most charming of gentlemen, but I do consider myself to have some chivalry. I shall do quite well on the sofa.” She gave him a grateful smile and stood by the bed unsure of what to do next. Calab appeared equally uncomfortable but recovered himself quickly and said, “There is a bathroom through that door if you wish to freshen up and change.”

  He motioned towards a door in the corner of the room. Eve picked up the shirt and headed for the bathroom. When she returned to the bedroom, she found Calab seated by the fireside with a glass of wine in hand.

  “It’s a little big for you,” he said, gesturing at the nightshirt that was drowning her small frame.

  She smirked. “Yes. It’s not very flattering.”

  Calab looked as though he was about to say something more, but appeared to change his mind as quickly and instead asked, “Wine?”

  “Yes please,” she said, taking a seat. Calab handed her a glass, and she swirled the wine around for a few moments as her mind ran over the events of the last twenty-four hours. “I suppose I should toast to my new life,” said Eve, raising her glass.

  Calab raised his glass to hers and said, “Carpe coronam.”

  Though she could not speak Latin, she guessed he had said something along the lines of ‘seize the crown’. It was not her choice of toast. “What will happen now?” she asked.

  “We will contact the rest of the alliance and Lady Ariana to let them know we have located you and that you are safe, then we have to remove the Imperator.”

  “Will you just force him to give up his rule?”

  “We will try, but it is likely that he will be executed if he poses a serious threat. He has people under him who could still do his bidding.”

  Eve bit her lip nervously and asked, “Does that happen a lot?”

  “Not often.”

  “What will happen to me?”

  “We will keep you safe until the Imperator has been dealt with and then you’ll become the Queen of Impærielas and the Crown of Arkazatinia.”

  She shook her head and sipped at her wine. “None of this seems real. I keep thinking I will wake up to find it has been a dream and I am back at home.”

  Calab raised an eyebrow and said, “It is most likely none of my business, but may I enquire as to why you wished to marry that person?”

  Eve dropped her gaze to the fire and replied, “He isn’t al
ways like that. He is cranky when he’s tired, but he can be very sweet.”

  “When passion rushes to flatter, time is slow to disillusion us,” Calab muttered, sipping his wine. “Baltasar Gracián.” He paused for a moment before adding, “I don’t mean to patronise you, and I don’t pretend to understand the emotions of humans, but I see the same patterns occur time and time again.”

  “You must think I’m stupid,” she said, biting her lip.

  “Naïve perhaps.”

  “I suppose I have known for a while it wouldn’t work,” she said, staring into her wine. “Things have been worse since we learned I cannot have children.”

  Calab met her gaze briefly then turned to stare into his glass and said plainly, “You are safe from him now.”

  She gave a curious smile and said, “You seem very different to when I first met you, and the second and third time I met you.”

  “Yes,” he said with a slight grin, “I am prone to the occasional mood swing I’m afraid.”

  “Is that very different from Jason?”

  “You make a fair point,” he said, shrugging slightly. “I did hurt you when I first met you, but I was in control. It was for effect. A demonstration to achieve a goal. I had no intention of seriously hurting anyone.”

  “Am I still a pawn?”

  “Far from it,” he replied. “You will rule all Arkazatinia.”

  “Why should I be allowed to do that? I’m not from here, I know nothing about the world, and I don't know anything about ruling a country.”

  “You have been chosen. Arkazatinia has selected you. When the time comes, I imagine you will know what to do.”

  Eve did not leave her room the next day, she still felt nervous about staying at the demon guild and wanted to hide as much as possible. Calab remained with her much of the day excusing himself briefly to shower, change and make telephone calls to the alliance. Their time was an eclectic mix of awkward silences and talk of Arkazatinia. Calab had given her a brief history of the land and its people which she had found overwhelming.