Page 68 of Captured By the Monsters
“We can’t,” Rowen interjected. “Not with the leader that is ruling The Above. He’ll never allow it to go back to the way it was.”
“Then we need to make them!” I demanded, and all three of my monsters moaned in frustration.
It wasn’t that I didn’t understand it would take a lot of work, or that I thought it wouldn’t be dangerous—it simply was about doing the right thing.
“Sera, if we go back to The Above, it will incite a war,” Sylan told me softly. “It will break the treaty.”
I had forgotten about that, and I pondered his words. War always brought bloodshed, and there was no guarantee that we would win, but I believed in my heart that there was a way to resolve our differences that didn’t involve fighting.
Surely, the leader of The Above could be negotiated with. He was a different leader than the one that fought the Rumilus. Granted, he’d likely been taught all the same beliefs by his family, but we wouldn’t know if we didn’t try.
“I think we need to approach him and tell him what is going on—explain that the benefits are far greater than keeping us separated. It’s not just The Below that is rotting, so is The Above. In a few more generations, human society will likely crumble when they don’t have enough women to continue on. They are sending so many women off to be slaughtered now, and I don’t think we’ll be able to go on—and if humans don’t go on, then neither do the Rumilus. Your kind can’t survive if mine doesn’t, and I guarantee life in The Above is slowly dying much like down here—except we don’t have a magical crystal to restore us.”
I let my heavy words hang in the air between us.
“And if something happens to you,” Axton interjected, “it would kill us—both literally and figuratively. If something happened to you, we couldn’t go on. Eventually, we would die without you as our mate. Furthermore, you are the True Queen. If something happened to you, the restoration of Paratiisi could go backwards. This isn’t just about keeping you safe, it’s about keeping our species safe as well.”
“I understand what you’re worried about, but if something happened to me, another Queen could be chosen, correct? That’s what you told me—that when one Queen dies, another is picked.”
“Yes, but look at how long it took us to find you!” Sylan exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air.
“Only because of the separation between humans and Rumilus. But now, with the crystal restored, it should make everything as it was before. If we could rectify the rift between the humans and your kind, then you could go to The Above once more and find mates easily. A new Queen could be found if anything happened to me.”
“No, no, no!” Rowen burst out angrily. “We can’t go to The Above, and that’s that!”
“Why not?!” I snapped, furious that for once I had the opportunity to make things right and they weren’t backing me.
Rowen stomped over, his hands shaking my shoulders gently to punctuate his words. “Because I can’t lose you!” The sheer desperation in his eyes and voice spoke volumes of the pain he felt at the thought.
“That’s not a good enough reason,” I parried softly. I was touched by his words, but this was a matter of life and death—of right and wrong.
Rowen let go of my shoulders to cup my face.
“Sera, I can’t lose you because…I love you. You aren’t just the Queen. You are our everything, gem.”
