Sixty-nine

— I don’t know!

— It was Benjamin! — she takes over and I go into shock.

— No! — nigga. — It wasn’t him...

— Benjamin was very greedy, he hated Falkor. he hated that bug because he was the only one who could hurt him, kill him. He wanted to extinguish the dragons, annihilate them.

"That’s why Falkor hates him so much..."

— He killed her, killed her, and stole her heart. Just like he did with the bodies of kings, when he left only his heart on the thrones, disappearing with their corpses.

That’s not Benjamin, not the same man I met, the man I woke up next to earlier. This animal, this demon she’s telling is something else, someone else.

— The bodies of...

"Where did he put Thomas' parents?"

— The bodies never left the palace!

— What?

— They spent years searching, while all that time were there!

Enough, even if Benjamin is the father of these children, I will never, ever let him get close to my children.

— I need to breathe...

I finally understand the reason for all the fainting and malaise. My stomach is all wrapped up. All this history, these revelations, the atrocities that Benjamin did.

"God..."

— Is—is everything okay?

"No, not at all!"

I run to the bathroom leaving her distressed and throw myself in front of the toilet by lifting the lid. There I cling to its clean and fragrant edges, pouring everything that was not doing me well.

Julie runs after me and worries about the way I was after the things she told her.

— Mila! — echoed touching my fallen shoulders.

I’d throw up, throw up without knowing when it would stop.

— Shit!

That’s when the sound of him, his voice, arrives in the room screaming from all four corners.

— JULIE!

We hear her cry, but only one of us can answer.

— WE ARE HERE! — announced the bathroom.

More than two footprints massacred the ground quickly, bringing them to us.

— Mila! — he appears worried, watching my body expel my last meal.

— She is be —

He comes all raw with his wall of muscles, apprehensive to see me like that, his wife moves away before he even pushes her, watching him hold my hair while I vomited.

— Are you okay? — asked more nervous than me. — Tell me what you’re feeling...

Julie walks to the warlock, seeking her help.

— I’m fine... I answer still facing the toilet.

— Can you see if something’s wrong? — Hector whispered.

It wasn’t blood, it wasn’t anything like the last few times. In my view it was totally normal, only with a slight pain in the abdomen.

— Hector! —called him taking his anxious look, even the wizard. — Please! — asked.

At their request, Hector walks towards me as Benjamin walks away so he can reach me. I do not reproach him, nor even prevent him from approaching, but watch his aged body bend beside me, as if he planned to do something.

— Majesty... —said. — With your permission, I wish I could help you! — spoke with his two hands pointed at my belly.

"How much drama for a common malaise!"

— V—will it hurt? — I ask wiping my mouth with the towel that Julie hands me.

— Not at all! — guaranteed. — You may feel discomfort, but that will be all!

"What’s he gonna do?"

— Okay! — I agree, letting him go on.

Her hands run to the surface of my belly, landing on the cloth of my clothes. The heat on them does not bother me, but when he closes his eyes, a kind of tingling starts to alarm me.

That second I climb my head looking for Benjamin, he was standing behind me, watching every action of the wizard.

"There’s no way this person is behind my back, being the same person Julia told. He doesn’t even know if the children are his and yet he’s here beside me like a lion protects his cubs."

Sweetly his eyes meet me as my head was leaning towards him. Her fingers go to my cheeks, caressing my face and her blue observes me all apprehensive.

— Are you feeling something? — he murmured worried.

— N—no... I said softly to him.

Hector takes his hands off my belly, unfolding his knees until he stands. His face can’t pass me confidence. Something had made him uneasy.

— Rest assured, vomiting will not bother you anymore!

I get up from the ground with Benjamin’s help and Julie will soon take care of all doubts.

— So, is everything okay?

— S—yes! — hesitated.

"Oops!"

"Did he stammer or something?"

Even if you didn’t know him well, anyone would be able to tell there’s something wrong. Hector is not an ordinary man, he is not a man of few words, much less one who hesitates to give an answer. Since I met him, his formality and knowledge has left me jaw—dropping, he comes to remind me of the great lords I met as a girl. Lords of the highest class, educated on the basis of torture. Nothing would make him waver in words if he were not taken by some kind of internal confrontation.

— What did you see? — I am direct as always. — You know something and do not want to tell!

— Mila! — he holds me thinking I might be out of control.

— If there were any signs of danger, I would be the first to notify, Your Majesty!

— Lie! — I’m thick, pulling my arm.

— Mila, what are you doing —

— Speak! — I stop facing the wizard, demanding answers. — Tell me what you saw!

— Calm down! — he asked coming from behind.

— Bennet, can we talk alone? — he asked ignoring me.

— Yes —

— You’re not going anywhere!

With the thoughts bewildered imagining the worst, I hold Hector’s arms shocking him with my boldness. I was determined to hold him there until he told me the truth about my children.

— Release me, Queen Mila! — asked more severely.

— No! — I reject, squeezing harder.

Then in a matter of seconds, the power of the sun and all its warmth, begin to rise through my fingers, advancing into my arms. It makes me experience the pain I felt once, as if I were exposed to light.

Exposed to the flames of the sun.

Immediately I release him, shake my hands.

— Stop! — I command letting a groan of pain escape.

It does not cease and those around me only understand what is happening when they see a light smoke blow over my skin.

— STOP! — I scream.

— Hector! — roared facing the wizard.

— IT’S BURNING! — I say beating my own arms.

— HECTOR! — said shaking the wizard by the arms, as if he were a toy. — WHAT IS YOUR FUCKING PROBLEM?

That’s when the burning suddenly disappears, as if it had never hit me before.

"What the fuck is that?"

— Benjamin, let him go, it’s okay!

— HOW DARE YOU ATTACK HER LIKE THIS? — he asked grabbing the collar of his blouse.

— Let me go!

It’s my fault he was respectful to me all this time and I invaded his space without any approval. I shouldn’t have done it.

— Benjamin! — I take his strong arms, trying to pull him. — Release, release him!

— I BROUGHT YOU HERE TO HELP YOU, NOT TO —

— BENJAMIN! —I interrupt. — Please, that’s enough. It was my fault!

He loosens his hands, turning to me.

— Guilty or not, he had no right to hurt you!

— I just made her remember a part of her past. It was all a mere imagination of her!

"Is he saying that none of this was real?"

— I saw you burn it, damn it!

— You all saw what I wanted you to see! — he replied. — Nothing happened, not to her and not to the babies.

— I know I was wrong, but you still owe me explanations!

— I cannot say what I saw without first being sure!

"Then he saw something!"

— Say what you know!

— I need your blood, Bennet! — he warned.

— Why? — complained. — Why only his blood?

"Fuck, she just needs to tell you to test Piter’s blood too. Fuck it!"

— Benjamin’s blood is the same blood that flows inside the Queen!

— That’s not what I asked! — he corrected. — I want to know what he will do with his blood, if it is to discover the paternity of children —

— Julie! — Scold her.

Everyone looks at me with doubtful faces, understanding that I was hiding something.

— I’m the father! — he told.

My mind collapses and I lose my lines.

— You?

"Him?"

— How can you know that if you have not studied all the possibilities?

— I do not need to study other alternatives, when I only confirmed what I suspected from the beginning!

"Am I...am I really pregnant with Benjamin?"

— Earlier in the room, I was able to absorb the energy of the fetuses by completing the paternity test. The unease Your Majesty felt was a consequence of my earlier experiment. The babies are from Mr Bennet, but they are also the fruit of his bond with the dragon.

As he explains step by step that riddle, I take charge of washing my hands quickly, relocating us to the room to understand the whole story.

— Falkor has the gift of fertility, a gift given by Daya!

"The dragon Benjamin didn’t tell me he murdered!"

— And your Queen has been transformed very recently, which means that her reproductive organs are far more conserved than those of Mrs Bennet, who died many centuries ago.

So even though Falkor trusts Benjamin’s wives, they couldn’t get pregnant, because they’ve been vampires a lot longer than me and their bodies haven’t worked in decades.

— The dragon’s blood only reignited a part of you, a part that already existed when you were still human, a few months ago.

— That means my organs, all of them –

— No! — he holds me. — Life flows only in your womb and is only flowing so far, because the dragon comes feeding you with his blood!

"That’s why Falkor gave me his blood, that’s why he made me drink even though he didn’t satisfy my hunger."

— You discovered all this just by absorbing the energy of babies?

— I had to absorb yours too, when we were in the bathroom!

— Did you practice magic on it and even ask for my permission?

"I love the way this man takes care of me, but there are things he says that have no sense at all!"

— He asked for me, Benjamin!

— What?

— I don’t know if you know, but it’s my body!

— The body is yours, but the children are mine! — he is authoritarian, with a very rude tone. — And I decide what to do!

"No, he didn’t say that!"

We’re both up against each other, ready to set fire where it takes.

— Repeat! — I say sticking my finger in his chest. — Repeat what you said! — I give another nudge.

— You’re not going to make decisions alone when you’re carrying my kids in there!

"So here’s the monster I doubted existed!"

— Yours? — retruco. — Where did you get that they are yours? — I mock. — Who is carrying me, not you!

— It will start! — he grumbled.

— Do they always act like this? — asked the vampire, watching us fight.

— Always worse than dog and cat!

— All you have to do is tell me that you made those babies yourself!

— But isn’t that what you would say if there was such a possibility? — Debato. — Because you knew about them longer than I did and yet you chose to hide them from me. You decided on your own, as if I was nothing and nobody.

— That’s not true! — he denies. — I was just looking for the right time to tell you, the ideal time. I couldn’t just drop this bomb in your lap and wait for you to solve it yourself.

— It’s not about me, Benjamin, it’s about us. WE SHIT! — I scream unintentionally. — You decided for me, planned everything without my consent. And the funny thing is, I’m the one who’s pregnant, not you!

— I didn’t tell you because I know you would act on impulse, I thought I could run away with them, or even —

He locks with his finger up in front of my face.

— Hell! — muttered giving up.

— Or even?

— Forget it, Mila!

— You think I’d take them off?

I know what he was going to say, I know he was going to throw in my face what I had done in the past, what I did when Thomas executed his plans.

— You can’t blame me for thinking like that, for wanting to protect them!

♡♡♡♡