Chapter 15

Chapter Fifteen

Page Fifteen—I stole a royal prince from them.

The deity of Twilight commanded this path for my life,

and it is the only way the royal line will continue.

" Y ou have to actually go into the water!"

Hettie sticks her tongue out at Calix, and two little fae girls on the other side of the river giggle from their spot on the rocks where they have been watching us for the last ten minutes. They are Hettie's new friends, and she has been playing with them for a solid week. Ziven agreed to let her have more freedom around the mansion as long as two Moon Dynasty guards are with her at all times. Or Ziven himself.

Right now Astrid and Calix are guarding us both, and Astrid is leaning against the tree, looking bored. Calix was happy to get in the water once I explained I want to teach Hettie to swim. Hettie wasn't too keen on the idea though. Someone should teach her and it might not be my place, but I'm growing fonder of Hettie every day that passes. She makes us all laugh at breakfast every morning, and by dinner, she has snuck out chocolate cakes for me and her to eat alone. They might be our last ones because of the food shortages but we have donated nearly all of our other food until we are on barely anything to get by. It's become a ritual of ours and I don't want it to end. This little girl deserves the world, and I want to give it to her.

It begins with learning to swim. Calix is not helping much with his bossy attitude. She takes my hand as I hover by the edge and smile at her. We are both wearing dark swimsuits, but the darkness doesn't suit her tanned complexion and long blonde hair. "It's okay. I'll hold you up if you struggle."

I'm still not feeling great, and my cramps have begun today in full force, but I've not bled yet. Ruelle, clever as she is, immediately began healing me to keep the pain at bay. But even she knows the next few days will be difficult for me. I absolutely know my cycle is coming, and the cramps are just the warnings. But every day is a treasure, it's a day of freedom, and I'm not going to feel better by leaving Hettie to learn to swim without me. With how Calix is bossing her about, she might never get into the water at all. I patiently wait for Hettie to make her own choice. If she doesn't want to get in, then she doesn't have to, and I won't make her. We can try again another time.

Her bright hair whips around her, and for a second, I see Daegan in her features. I wonder if Hettie's biological father looked much like Daegan, being his brother, because she looks so much like him. I love Ziven more for how much he adores her, even when she is the image of her mother's attacker. Thankfully, Daegan has stayed well away from me, and I'm happy he does now that I know everything. I'm half tempted to just punch him for all the lies, for what he did to Hettie and me. I think he stays away because of the book. I don't know if it frightened him that the book somehow took me when I was close. It frightened me too, enough not to go anywhere near his apartments.

Hettie dips her legs in and shivers. "It's so-so cold!"

I laugh, splashing her, and she squeaks. "Of course it is! But you don't notice after a while." Eventually she lowers herself fully into the river and holds onto the edge of the rock wall, as the current slowly flows past us. This is a great place to learn to swim because the very gentle current will pull her along. Calix dives into the deeper area like a big kid, his head sticking out seconds later. "Come on." I take her hands and lead her into the deeper part, staying close as I show her how to float her body up and how to move her arms and legs. She struggles a little, but soon she gets the hang of it.

She swims circles around me and soon joins her friends in the shallow part, giggling and laughing with them like kids should do. Calix watches from the embankment and I swim over, pulling myself out, and he hands me a towel. I watch the girls, but I can't help but see the scars on Calix's body. He has hundreds of them. "Ask. You have that face where you want to ask, but you don't think we are close enough. I'm saying we are, so ask."

"It's not that. It's just none of my business, so I don't want to be nosy."

"You ask far too many questions to be considered anything but nosy." He laughs and I chuckle. Fine. We're slowly becoming friends, and I can see why Ziven trusts him so much. He's loyal and kind. "Maybe we should talk about our past, all the crazy shit, to bond or something like that."

"I have scars all over my stomach from bites. Vampyre bites cannot be healed by powerborn magic, and he oddly didn't like to bite my neck or wrists often. My skin healed there, but the thousands on my stomach and chest? They won't ever heal." My shoulders drop as I share this with him. It feels good to tell him in a way, like it's not a secret weighing me down anymore. "I used to think they made me ugly, but Ziven…he restored my faith that they don't." I shiver as I remember the mirror.

He gulps as he watches Hettie and the children play. "I got these scars from falling off my dragon on our first flight. I was cocky and didn't listen to a word of warning from my parents. I got my dragon, flew too fucking high, and she had to catch me with her claws to save my life. It was embarrassing, and Etena…" He pauses. "Back then, she was worried sick. She laughed though, once she heard I was fine and I'd survive my idiotic mistake."

It's on the tip of my tongue to ask how things are between them, but I don't. That's for him to figure out, and it's crossing a line. Right before I hear leaves crunching under heavy boots, I feel l him. Ziven. I glance over my shoulder, seeing him stalking through the woods like a dark, grumpy storm. He smiles when he sees me looking, and it makes my heart jump. There's a playfulness to his face, a lightness sometimes that only I get to see. It's nearly sunset, and there is a red light dropping all over the sky. I sniff the air when he comes closer and frown at the ash all over his fitted black jacket. He sits down on the rock next to me. "Why do you smell like burnt wood? Or do I not want to know?"

Calix coughs. "You don't want to know."

I glare at him. "Were you the distraction?"

Ziven takes my hand and tugs me closer. His eyes trace down my bare legs and up, like he can see through the swimsuit and towel. "Don't blame him." I can't anyway, because Calix has dived in the river to avoid me. "I went and burnt down the castle." My heart feels like it stops. I look at him with wide eyes. "Don't worry, I searched all over for a way to help Kyrell, and my people have been for weeks. We didn't find anything." He touches my cheek. "I don't want you going back there, because we both know it holds nothing but nightmares. I don't want you reliving any of the memories of that place."

"That's your old home, Ziven," I whisper, my throat clogged with shock and so, so many emotions. Relief, joy and love. He did this because he loves me.

He lifts me onto his lap, and I curl my arms around his neck. "You are my home. You are the only person I want to build a home with. When you're ready, you can help me design and build us a new home with new memories. A home for us." He smirks. "And maybe Hettie too."

"Ziven…"

He leans down, our faces inches away, and his silver eyes stare into my soul. He can claim me with one look. "I want a future with you."

A wave of pain hits me hard in the stomach at the worst time, and I slam my hand over my stomach. He pulls his jacket off, wraps it around my shoulders, and picks me up. He looks over at Calix. "Get Hettie back inside before it's dark."

"Got it!" he shouts back as Ziven begins to carry me to the path.

"I can walk," I mutter. He shakes his head at me. "I'm fine. It's just sometimes a bit sore before my cycle begins."

"You should have been resting." He says it softly, but I know he is mad I'm not in bed.

"Hettie learning to swim is a big thing, and she asked me. I wanted to have a first with her that we can remember," I admit, biting my lip. "You realise my monthly cycles, what I go through, means that I won't likely be able to have babies. At least that's what I've been told by many healers. I'm broken, Ziv. You are the king of the Moon Dynasty, and you're talking about a future I might not be able to give you."

He pauses, putting me down on a fallen tree. Ziven kneels in front of me and tucks a strand of my wet red hair behind my ear. "I don't care. Fuck, I don't even want kids with you because they'll take you from me. They'll take your attention and they'll take your time. I don't want that yet. But if you were to get pregnant"—he touches my stomach—"then fucking hell, I'd love that too. I don't know what the deities have planned for us, but you are not fucking broken. You are not something that I need to fix, or repair, or wish for better. Your infertility is just another part of you, but it is you that I want. All of you as my mate, as my queen, and fuck, I'll kill anyone that dares to ask about our future plans."

There he goes, ruining me for anyone else. Stealing my heart could be an art form for Ziven, and branding it his day job. "You're a king…"

"And you're going to be a queen. Fuck the rest of them." He cups my face. "I understand why you love Hettie so much and want the firsts with her. She loves you too and you never have to explain yourself to me. If you want us to try to get pregnant, then stop drinking the potions from Ruelle, and I'll fuck you every day."

I grin. "To make a baby or just for fun?"

He winks. "Both. If you want that, then ‘mother of my child' will just be another honoured title among the many you own. I don't care if we never have kids, I just want you. All of you. I'm a selfish fucker when it comes to you." I know he means it and I love that he has clearly thought about this. "You're mine. You're all I want."

"Where do you get the cakes from?" Kyrell questions from the other side of the door.

I chuckle. "Hettie bribes the cooks, and she always gets the best cakes. The novelty of being the only royal child around." I shove another one into my mouth to appease my cravings, wishing that I could climb through the door and hug the sadness out of his eyes. I can see him through the bars of the dungeon door, but there's a shimmering magic holding him back that can only be broken by unlocking the door. Not that Kyrell has ever tried to get through it…yet. I can't shake the memories of what he did in the library out of my head when I see him. Sometimes I don't see the Kyrell I loved, but a ghost of him. He looks sick and drained of colour, of everything that made him Kyrell.

Kyrell looks paler than he did when he first got here, and I know he's not drinking much blood like he should. Ruelle has been in many times and said she thinks it's because the body he is in is too broken, too damaged from the king's attack, and she isn't sure how long he actually has left. He can't die. I won't let him. There has to be a cure for vampyres; after all, they were made from fae. They must be able to be unmade. Or something. Anything. I glance at the bottles of blood on the side of his bed, wondering if he's going to pick them up and drink eventually. "Are you okay? I kind of feel bad sitting here eating sugary foods like an animal while you can't eat them anymore."

"No, carry on. I like seeing you this happy, little Tory." His nickname makes me smile around more cake. "He makes you happy, right? The Moon king with the dark eyes, grumpy attitude and pretty face?"

I nod. "We had a hard path getting here, but yes, he does. I love him and it's real. He is everything, Kyrell."

"No, you are everything, Story. Don't you fucking forget that because of some good dick," I blush at his crude words. "But that dick does happen to love you, too. I'm sure of it."

"I wish I could get you out of here. It just… There's nothing in the libraries. Nothing to help with changing you back or saving you. Yet." He winces when I say library . "Mazzis knows it wasn't you. It wasn't your fault, Ky. It's not like you went for him on purpose."

He looks away. "It still doesn't mean it won't happen again, and I had no control. I don't even remember it, but you know what I hate the most?" I shake my head. "That when I came to, I could taste his delicious blood, and I wanted more. I craved more." He laughs at himself, at his plain hands. "I can't be safe around you because even now, I can smell your blood and I want to bite you. My magic's gone, do you know that?" He turns his hands over. "I spent my whole life dedicated to healing people. I never hurt people and I never wanted to. The prince never made me until he turned me into this and sent me here. I felt my magic every day of my life until I was turned, and then it was just gone. Sometimes I feel it under my skin, like I can reach for it, but I just can't."

"I'm sorry." My heart shatters because he saved me, and yet, I can't save him in return.

He softly frowns my way. "Hey, don't cry. I get to see you again. We get to talk. We never really got that in those last couple of weeks, did we? I never saw much of you until that day I got you out and it all went wrong. Every plan that I had went wrong, but you still ran. I was so proud of you for leaving me, Tory. It must have been hard."

"I watched him kill you from above," I admit.

He pales even more. "I remember the pain, and his face. I don't think I'll ever forget that face." He shakes his head.

I change the subject to the future. He needs hope, and I can give him that. I can give him dreams. "When the barrier comes down, we could get you out of here, and we could find your mum. You could see her, and she is a fantastic healer. I'm sure she will help us search the world for a cure. Maybe, in time, she can find a cure."

"Always dreaming and reading." He softly smiles. "And hoping. Ziven is right, you are a storm. Everyone should fear the power of a reader with a stormy mind full of hope and dreams." I want to reach for him as he stares right at me, like he can see that future. "I'm proud of you, you know that? For literally everything you've done. I know it must have been hard."

"Why does it sound like you're saying goodbye?" I accuse.

"I'm not." He looks away from me, though. "I just want you to know that, that I'm proud of you and that I love you. I told you to burn it all down. I didn't think you'd literally go and get yourself a dragon and accomplish that task with flair."

I laugh with him. "She's a pretty dragon, right?"

"All red, the very colour of your hair and of flames." He wistfully sighs. "I hope to see you flying high in the skies, Story."

There is that sadness again. That lack of hope that I want to fix for him. Kyrell was never the sad one of the pair of us. He was sunshine.

"Is there anything I can get you?" He shakes his head. "No, but you should get out of here. I can see you're not well and you look pale. I'm guessing you snuck down here when you're meant to be resting."

"You know me too well." I wrinkle my nose. "Don't give up, Ky. I will never give up on you."

He waits until I'm at the door and almost through it to reply. Only, I think he didn't want me to hear. "That's what I fear the most."