[Bonus chapter - Abe's POV Unlocked]

I love Penelope.

She is the light to my darkness. My other half, my beautiful, powerful, and wonderful queen.

When I sleep, I dream of us together.

I dream of her laughing with delight in our garden, as I make flowers bloom for her with just a touch. The garden is filled with rose bushes of the brightest reds and pinks. My queen sits in the middle of the central gazebo, the one she chose to oversee for the construction. She reads a love storybook on the ancient gods. She is wearing that tantalizing pink dress, and her beauty makes me want to hold her forever.

"What would you name baby number one?" She asks me, tilting her head so she can see my eyes.

I love the connection we have. It was not always this way, but now that we are together nothing could take us apart.

As I tease her I say, "Maybe Abe Junior?"

"We already have Abe Junior," Penelope wiggles her eyebrows and I tap her hips lightly, smiling at her jest.

Just as I am about to tell her my ideas for names that I've already thought of, it starts raining. The rain pelts over us and the whole sky changes into a battleground between thunder and lightning. A gust of strong wind tears at our skin and Penelope's eyes turn misty grey, her form disappearing slowly as I shout, trying to hold onto her body. A dark silhouetted figure appears in the distance, illuminated by a bright flash of lightning.

When I tumble into waking, she is in my arms and in that same dress.

She wiggles underneath me, arousing me.

"Please stop moving," I groan.

But as I open my eyes and look over her shoulder, everything has changed.

The garden is no more, instead we are in our old throneroom, shrouded in darkness. I can still see in the dark but there's not much to marvel at since the room is almost crumbling in decay. I can't make sense of what happened.

One second we were rulers of our kingdom, and now we are in a spelled room. I can feel the sickly enchantment pulling onto my skin, trying to take me back under to sleep. I glare at the vines threatening to wrap around us, the way my arms are wrapping around my wife. The vines retreat immediately.

"Penelope!" I shake my wife's waist, as she keeps wiggling underneath me.

Her eyes open, she blinks slowly as if assessing her position.

She looks up at me, and for the first time since I remember her in my dreams, I feel a crushing weight against my heart. The pain is almost unbearable, because in her eyes I see. I see that she doesn't recognize me. She looks so confused, like a flitting dark-fairy caught in the light.

My hand falls from her waist though my other hand still supports her body.

"You don't know who I am." I say.

I mourn the loss of contact as she slides off me, crossing her arms in a protective stance as she faces me. The last time she was scared of me was a long time ago, but the way she reacts to me is like the first time we met. Confused, almost fearful.

"Penelope, I'm your husband." I tell her the truth as it is.

She stumbles, her foot snagging against the carpet. She pitches backwards but I leap and catch her before she can fall or injure herself. Many of the candles flicker out.

"Clumsy as ever, my queen." I sigh, running my fingers through her soft glossy hair.

"Queen?" She asks, pulling away from me again.

"Fuck," I bites my lip as she asks me what I mean, and as she pulls away from me for the second time.

She doesn't remember much at all, and I wish she could at least remember our life together, our last conversation.

"So you don't know who you are either." I state.

"I, I'm not sure. I remember my name, but I can't remember anything else, my head hurts." She says.

"Shh," I cradle her head in my hands.

My power works, to heal and to speak in soft touches to anyone or anything. Penelope was always the fiery one, while I am normally more calm.

"Penelope, I am Abe, king of the underworld. You are the queen and my wife. We were put under a spell that forced us to sleep. I don't know how long we were gone, I only woke moments before you did. I am trying to remember some things too. But I think we're still in danger." I speak to her more of our truths, wondering when she will remember them.

She seems to mull my words over, no doubt trying to decide whether to trust me. I see her eyes scrunch up a bit, that cute look of hers.

"Alright. What do we do?" She asks, glancing around the room.

The door to the throne room is at the other end of the throne.

"Let's get out of here first." I say and we start walking.

When she stumbles again, I catch her by the waist to steady her body.

"Thanks," she mumbles.

"Always," I reply.

"Oh, I'm not wearing any shoes." She says, looking to her feet.

"I can fix that," My lips curl into a small smile.

Creation is something I love to do, and if for Penelope, I would make anything in the world for her if I could.

I point a finger at her feet and imagine her as she used to be in our garden. Wearing a pretty dress, but in a pair of black walking boots. She'd shovel plants in our garden even though I could do it for her in a heartbeat, she liked working with her hands. She always brought me back some funny plant and even tried to cook them for our meals.

Our kitchen chefs would be furious and afraid they'd be out of a job. Her favorite dish was something she liked to call tomato egg fry, and our chefs hated how simple the dish was with only a few ingredients. Sometimes the most simple things can make something so good. It makes me smile again as I conjure the shoes for her.

Penelope looks down at her feet in wonder, now covered with shoes.

"Thank you," She breathes.

I say, "anything for my queen."

She blushes, looking away. But I still see the way her cheeks turn slightly pink, and my heart skips a beat. It reminds me of the nights we'd spend together, wrapped in each other's embrace. Her cheeks would be pink like this too, as I drew soft sighs from her lips during our lovemaking.

"You're beautiful when you blush." I say, touching her burning cheeks.

"How…?" She look up at me.

"Night vision," I wink at my wife.

She scowls, and I smile. My hand leaves her face and I takes her hand in mine, tugging her along.

"It might be better this way, we can't have you falling over and injuring yourself," I explain.

She might still be nervous to feel my touch or not feel as natural as I do around her, so I try to be more cautious to explain my actions. She said she can't remember anything aside from her name, so there must be a lot to take in. If I couldn't remember I'm sure it would be hard for me to piece things together too. It will take time, time I'm willing to wait for.

She nods, walking with me.

The feel of her soft hand in mine makes me happier, as it always did. I note how the throne room looks older, like nobody else has been in here for a long time. How did we get trapped in here, locked in time? It must be a spell, but I am trying to think of what kind of spell it could be and who would do such a thing to us. Our enemies were less powerful than us, to the extent of my memories and knowledge.

There's something blocking my mind too, but I can't put my finger on what it is exactly causing my brain to blank. The last thing I can remember that could have affected us is the great battle between our kingdom and the upper world, but I believe we did not lose that battle. I'm not sure I want to find out what lies ahead of us, as I am certain there must be some forces trying to keep us asleep, if they thought to even curse us to sleep in the first place and take our memories.

I'm thinking of all those we know with magic, trying to think if any of our counsel would have betrayed us. We're almost there to the entrance and we walk in silence.

I tap my feet against the ground, looking to see if there are any traps or dangerous obstacles ahead of us. The walk takes us a good half-minute, since Penelope's steps are smaller than mine too. I could glide over the throne room and take us there faster, but I don't want to overwhelm Penelope with my powers. She doesn't know of her own powers yet either.

Just as we're steps away from the entrance, the doors burst open and light spills into the room.