SWNOVELS Chapter 13: Meeting
Anxiety woke me up early, so I've taken the extra time to style my hair into a braid. It took a while to do, and my arms were quite sore by the time I finished, but I think it's worth it. It's pretty simple but makes me feel a bit done up.
I pop my head out the bathroom door and peek at the position of the sun. It's just starting to rise, and I estimate that it's pretty close to eight. Sighing, I take one last look at myself, pinching my cheeks to draw some color to them and pushing back the tiny hairs that aren't long enough to stay in my braid.
The hallway is empty as I enter it, making me wonder if the Beasts even bother guarding this area. It appears to be only me residing here so I wouldn't be surprised if they don't. The walk to the King's office is short, so much so that I reach it within one breath.
His bedroom door taunts me as I walk past, and I wonder for a second what he would do if I entered his office through his bedroom. Lately I've been finding myself wanting to push the limits with Heloix. It's not a feeling I've ever had around a Beast before, and I worry that I'll go too far and get myself punished if I start acting on it.
King Heloix has been relatively nice to me, with the exception of him threatening John, and it makes me want to act out. I don't know why, and despite being aware that it's a foolish response that could get me killed, I feel it nonetheless.
Ignoring my wayward thoughts, I walk past his door until I find the second entrance that leads directly to his office. I raise my fist, hesitating for a second, before knocking it against the wood.
My knock is met with silence, and I wait for a minute before hearing a muffled "come in".
Setting my shoulder against the door, I grab the knob, turn it, and shove at the wood as hard as I can. It opens just wide enough for me to slip inside, and I quickly do so.
Heloix sits behind his desk, clearly holding back a laugh as he watches me struggle to enter.
"The door is heavy." I huff, embarrassed by his laughing.
"I'll have the hinges moved to this door."
"What about Gwen?" I ask, knowing that she is only allowed to enter only through the bedroom door.
Heloix shrugs. "What about her?"
I hold back a smirk at his response, secretly enjoying the mental image of her struggling with it. She'll be pissed if it gets moved the office door that she's not allowed to use.
The King gestures for me to sit in the leather chair across from his desk and I obediently obey, sinking deep into the large cushions. This furniture was made for the large stature of Beasts, and I no doubt look silly in it.
Heloix doesn't seem to notice though, or pretends not to, as he slides a stack of papers over to me.
"Axis isn't going to be joining us today as his mate is having her baby, so I'll just have you look over these numbers he put together and we can discuss."
I nod, grabbing the papers off the table. The stack is quite large, and I quickly flip through it in shock. Heloix watches me for a second before focusing once again on the work that lies in front of him.
Turning back to the first page, I start reading, breaking out in a cold sweat as I realize that I can't make out most of what's on here. Slaves aren't given a formal education and although John's mother did teach me the basics of reading and math when I was younger, it never quite reached the level of what's on here.
Half the words and numbers on this page are beyond what I understand, and tears fill my eyes as I struggle to work my way through it.
To admit to the King that I don't comprehend what's on here is humiliating, so instead I stare at the page in false interest. The liquid building in my eyes makes the words appear blurry but I don't bother wiping them away.
My palms are sweaty, sticking to the paper in my hands, and the back of my neck has gone clammy as well. There's no way I'm going to be able to pretend that I understand what's on here. I'm expected to speak on these numbers on behalf of the servants, and I'm going to be letting them all down.
The sound of the office door opening tears me from my pity party, and I snap my head to the side to see Gwen enter the room with cleaning supplies. She says nothing to either of us, but shoots me a sharp glare.
I look away, glancing at the King to see his reaction to her. He doesn't even seem to notice her presence; his attention entirely focused on the work in front of him. It doesn't go unnoticed by me that he isn't staring at her the way he did me when I first came in here, the knowledge making me sit up a bit straighter.
Gwen begins moving around the room, dusting off the shelves and replacing the books that have been removed from them. She doesn't seem nervous at all as she struts past the King to the bookshelf behind him, or as she reaches down to grab the trash next to his leg.
I hear the bag crinkle and milliseconds later the King's leg jerks to the side, away from her hand.
"Refrain from touching me, human." He snarls at her, his face pinched.
It's shocking to hear him speak with such disgust, and I hold in a gasp at his tone. Even when threatening John his voice wasn't so harsh.
Gwen nods, face paling, and steps away. I bring my attention back to the papers I hold in my hand, feeling all my frustration return.
"What's wrong, Adeline?" Heloix suddenly speaks.
I look up at him, hoping he can't see the wetness in my eyes, and shrug.
"Nothing, just looking through this."
"Ignoring your pounding heart, I can both see and smell the tears in your eyes. Are you upset with the terms in the document?" He asks.
"Sir," Gwen suddenly speaks up, a smirk on her face. "Adeline can't read."
The room is silent at her statement, and the tears I've been trying so hard to hold in start to fall.
"I can read! I just don't know the bigger words." I'm quick to defend myself, but my voice cracks as I speak, making me sound small.
The King hums thoughtfully, slowly turning his head to look at Gwen.
"What's your name?" He calmly asks as he interlocks his fingers and sets them down on his desk.
"Gwen."
"Hm, tell me, Gwen, what do we do with humans who speak out of turn?"
Gwen's haughty demeanor quickly fades, her skin once more going pale. She immediately drops her head to the ground in submission, her hands tightly squeezing the cloth between them.
"They lose their tongue." She answers him, voice quiet for the first time.
The King agrees, dismissing her from his office. She scurries out of the room, leaving Heloix and me alone once more. I can feel his eyes on me, but I refuse to meet his gaze, feeling shame that I've been exposed.
"Adeline- look at me." He says, voice audibly softer than it was just moments ago.
I do as I'm told, lifting my eyes to the King's. He's staring at me with his eyebrows raised in question.
"I'm not judging you, but I need you to be honest with me. Do you actually know how to read, or were you just saying that to save face?" He questions.
I narrow my eyes in anger, upset that he's questioning me on my reading comprehension.
"I can read." I announce, voice firm.
"Great, that makes this easy." He says, getting up out of his chair and walking around his desk towards me.
He comes to stand next to me, and crouches down so we are both eye level with the papers in my hand.
"Tell me what you don't understand." He orders.
Sighing, I begin scanning the paper. Shyly, I point to the large chart at the center of the page.
The King looks it over as he silently brings his hand to the nape of my neck. He doesn't do anything with it, simply rests it on the skin, but I feel my face flame up anyways.
"Okay, so this is a proposed inventory list for next month. It's listing out items in this first column and the quantity in the second column. Looking at the first row here, we see that the item is tampons, and the quantity is 240." He says, pointing to each item as he speaks.
"Does that make sense?" He asks when I don't respond.
"But there are 40 women here?" I question. I struggle to do the mental math, counting out on my fingers. "That means each woman will only get 5 tampons for the month."
The King doesn't respond right away as he gets up and walks back around the desk. I watch him, confused, not sure why he suddenly left. He reaches into one of the drawers and pulls out a calculator.
My face heats up as I realize that I must have been wrong in my math. Heloix comes back around to me and crouches down once more, setting the calculator in my lap.
"Do the math." He commands.
Picking up the calculator, I quickly punch in the numbers. I've not used one before, but it's pretty straightforward and the symbols match what John's mother taught me.
"6 tampons per month." I correct myself, hesitant to speak up and tell him that that's not enough.
The King smiles, seemingly happy that I figured it out.
"Does that number sound good?"
"Well, uh, that's not a lot. Women bleed for up to a week and need to change their tampon multiple times a day." I inform him.
"Then what do you think is a better number?" He asks.
I'm pleasantly surprised that he's asking for my input, and a small smile spreads across my face as I think of an answer. Each woman is different, and so giving them all the same amount seems a bit silly. I think a good option would be to get a large amount, say 500, and leave them in the bathroom for the girls to take as they need. Then we can refill whenever they are getting low.
I share my idea with Heloix, blushing as he agrees and gives me a pen to mark down the adjustment on the sheet. As embarrassed as I am to be needing his help like this, he hasn't made me once feel stupid or shameful of my difficulties.
"What else do you need help with here?" Heloix murmurs.
My eyes quickly scan over the page, looking to find any words or concepts that I do not understand. There are a couple, and I point them out, listening carefully as Heloix explains each one to me with unwavering patience.
The afternoon continues like this, and before I know it we are finishing up the last page.
"You did a good job today." The King says, grabbing the papers out of my hand and setting them on the desk.
"Thank you Heloix!" I respond, testing out using his first name.
He smirks at my words before turning his back to me and walking up to his bookshelf. His outfit is quite simple today, a pair of nice slacks and a white t-shirt, both of which are hugging his body nicely.
I take the opportunity of Heloix having his back to me to admire him, letting my eyes wander over him from head to toe.
"You know," He mutters, bending down and running his finger along the spines of his books. "That's not how you pronounce my name."
I blush.
"Oh."
"It's pronounced Hell-oi." He snatches the book he's been searching for off the shelf, quickly spinning around and holding it out to me.
It's a book on Beast culture, and I tentatively reach out to grab it with a frown. While I'm not exactly an expert on Beasts, I have been around them my whole life and have a pretty good idea of their traditions.
"This new role is going to require you to go into the city. You've only been around Royals your whole life, and commoners have different traditions. It will do you well to learn them." He answers my unspoken question.
I'm going to go into the city? The only time I've ever ventured off castle grounds was when I was young and managed to convince the chef to take me with him to the market. We were harassed the entire time, Beasts shouting crude things and even going as far as to throw trash and leftover food at us.
I felt so bad for the chef, knowing that he was forced to go through this every day. I never asked for him to take me again and he never offered. He went missing a couple years later, and rumor was that he was killed on his way back from the market. Apparently, the Beasts didn't even take his food or money, just killed him out of sport.
The thought of going again has me nervous, my palms sweaty at just the mention of it. I don't think that Heloix would put me in a situation that would have me killed, but that doesn't mean that it'll necessarily be pleasant.
"Have humans been to the city before?" I ask.
Heloix grimaces, bringing his hand up to scratch at his chin.
"Axis will accompany you whenever you go to keep you safe."
It doesn't go unnoticed that he didn't directly answer my question, but I don't push any further. Chances are that any humans that have gone to the city haven't made it back unharmed or even alive.
I do feel slightly better that the Second will go with me. Despite the obvious fact that I'm not his biggest fan, I doubt he would go against his King's wishes and let the commoners hurt me.
"Do you ever go into the city?" I ask, curious to hear more about what the King does when he's not working.
He shrugs. "Not really. I've been going every couple of days or so with Jade to keep the people happy."
Jade? Is that not the woman who cut my face? I thought that he wasn't a fan of hers? A strange mix of anger and jealousy washes over me as I think about them together in the city.
"I thought you had her removed from the castle?" I ask, wondering if my memory is failing me and he is speaking about a different woman.
"Oh, I did. I dislike her quite a bit, but it makes my people happy when I make appearances with her."
"So you accepted her proposal then?"
"No."
"Oh."
I grab the book off the table, running my finger along the hard cover. Is he going to accept it? It sounds like it if they are going out together so often. Deep down I thought that maybe he kicked her out and rejected her because she had hurt me. It feels silly now to think about, and I feel foolish for being upset by the news. Heloix is a King, and it's expected that he find a strong mate and start a family.
"You are upset by this." He says, sounding curious.
I refuse to meet his gaze right away, choosing to stare at the book in front of me. It looks quite old, the cover a deep blue with gold trim. It's titled 'Beast Tradition & Culture', and I'm actually pretty curious to read it.
I look away from the book and up at Heloix, plastering a fake smile on my face.
"I'm not upset. I just wasn't aware that you two were together." I say, keeping my voice chipper.
"You're lying."
"No."
"You're jealous."
"No."
"You want me."
I gasp, scowling at his words. It's pretty presumptuous of him to assume these things about me, and even more so for him to voice them this way. Despite the fact that they are true, I don't quite appreciate him saying them as if they are fact. It's quite embarrassing too. Am I that open of a book? That transparent?
"It's okay." He says, crouching down once more so he's eye level with me. "If you want me all you need to do is ask."
I don't respond, but it doesn't seem to bother Heloix at all. His hand reaches out and brushes my hair out of my face before tucking it behind my ear. He leans in slowly, making me nervous that he's going to kiss me again. Instead he moves his lips to my ear, breathing softly against the skin.
"I can promise that you'll enjoy it." He murmurs, biting gently on my earlobe.
I jerk away from him, my heart beating rapidly. My legs instinctively clench together and I scrunch up my face as desire rushes through my body before settling at my core. My mouth flaps open like a fish as I try to think of something clever to say.
"I-um, I should leave now if I'm going to get down in time for dinner."