Chapter 3

Nikolai

“Sir—”

“Haven’t I told you to leave me for the evening?” Looking up from the papers scattered on his bed he watched the guard stand in the doorframe to his chamber. Raphael was dressed in the usual uniform of Oy Frossen. The colour of ice, swirls of dark blue running up the sleeves and diving under the metal padding on the shoulders and in front of the chest. A pattern was burned right over the middle of the chest armour, resembling a sn?fnugg. A belt slung around his waist, a sword sheathed into its place.

The guards wore their hair short, Raphael’s auburn curls cropped close to his skull. His quartz eyes were watchful as they tried to gauge his mood.

“I remember what you said, but it is your mother.”

A grimace marred Raphael’s face but with the scar running from the top of his lip to his chin it often looked like he was scowling. Knowing what bother it was to shake off his mother he suspected that Raphael was really scowling this time. “She insists on seeing you.”

Nikolai sighed, letting the notes in his hands flutter on the mattress. “Does she know about the dinner with Aileen today?”

“I fear she does,” said Raphael.

“Well then, I have no way to trick her. Let her in before she tears down the walls.” He gestured toward the wooden door not knowing if he imagined the twitch of his guard’s lips.

“As you wish.” He bowed before slipping out of his chamber faster than he would’ve liked him to.

He tried to tame the chaos of blonde locks on his head before a woman stepped into his room, dressed in a red voluptuous gown. Her black hair was pinned in an updo on her head, setting the sharp features of her face alight. Her cheekbones were sharp and angry, her brows were shaped naturally into perfection. Her green eyes were ablaze with silent rage.

With her lips in a straight line, his mother walked over to where he resided on his bed, his suit undone, trousers crumpled. He was aware of all the ways he was already failing her but he resisted to straighten his trousers or make sense of the mess on his bed.

“I have heard of your behavior today.”

“You mean Tyra went to you and ranted about what an awful man I am.”

Her brows drew into a sharp line as she took a seat beside him on the bed. Her posture remained perfect, her skin aglow in the candlelight. It was ridiculous how awfully different they were, one the perfect picture of royalty while he slumped, dark moons under his eyes and a sickly tint to his skin.

Where one was day, the other was night, the only thing resembling them were their jade eyes, so trusting and soft.

“Don’t blame your sister for telling me, Nikolai.” She placed a cold hand on his cheek. “But I cannot help and fear you’re drifting.” He pushed his cheek into her hand, closing his eyes. The soft scent of jasmine lingered around him, a scent he associated with his whole life, watching his mother spread the oil into her hair when he was still just a boy.

“Fear not, mother.” He placed his hand on hers before retreating. She watched him dissatisfied. “Why have you yet not proposed to Princess Aileen-Akamu? I gave you the family ring, you have gotten to know her for the past month. Tell me, what is holding you back?”

He didn’t know.

Her eyes searched his and he knew the longer he let her look, the closer she would get to the truth.

“You are not thinking of sending her back to the Southern Isles, are you? You know we cannot let that happen.”

Nikolai got off his bed scoffing. “Of course I know that. Despite what my sister told you, I do not intend to send the princess back.”

He paced in front of his window, overlooking most of his kingdom. The landscape was barely visible, the sun vanished from the horizon a time ago, making way for the tribune of the moon.

“Then why wait?”

He turned aggravated. “Is it such a surprise that I am looking for a different solution? That I do not want to doom Princess Aileen into a loveless marriage, so I can attain their armada to protect Oy Frossen from the Sosye?”

His mother stood up from his bed and he wondered what he looked like. Distressed and scared like a little boy? That was how he felt most of the time. He knew that it would come. The tribes of the witch hunters, the Sosye, were growing every day, and when the time was ripe, they would attack. They were barbaric folk, camping in the woods, hunting for their desire. It was bound to happen one day that they wanted more. No one was ever satisfied with what they had. The numbers were growing and there existed more witch hunters than in all time Nikolai could remember.

It was his task to protect his kingdom from them. A potential coup to take on the throne and redeem their species to obtain the rights only noblemen were allowed to procure. The armadas from the Southern Isles would be a great alliance to make, the Sosye would not dare attack his kingdom with a man force like it. Which is why he was supposed to marry Princess Aileen-Akamu.

“You know that there is no other way, Niko. The Sosye will not cower in fear, they are fearless hunters, ravenous folk without any manners less any mercy. They will run over Oy Frossen and take the throne with many victims left behind.”

“Do you think I don’t know that, mother? All of this wouldn’t have happened if—” he stopped himself because he knew he already said too much. Something glinted in the cunning eyes of his mother. The queen got off the bed, straightening her skirts. “Is that what it is? Are you still thinking of her?” she asked.

“No.”

It’s a desperate try to convince her that he was over it, that he didn’t dream of her almost every night.

His mother paced over to him her hand finding his shoulder. Instead of taking his burden, it felt like she was bearing down, weighing him down even more. “She is gone, Niko, and she will never come back.”

You don’t know that. He wanted to say. He wanted to tell her that despite the fact that the girl he was supposed to marry went missing when they were children, there was still a chance she was alive. Some people could survive in the wilderness and maybe she found her way to a town nearby and could not reach the palace to tell them she was alive. Maybe she did not remember him, she was quite young when she was taken.

“No matter if she is here or not, Amalie would not be the solution to this.”

“How can you know that? Father intended for her to marry me because she grew up in the lands of the Sosye. The Winter family is respected by the witch hunters and maybe they wouldn’t be vengeful for blood if I were to marry her.”

His mother’s nails bored into his shoulder with her next words.“It was the witch hunters who kidnapped her, Nikolai. They are the ones who didn’t want you to marry her. How much could they respect the Winter family, if they took her daughter from them? She was half a witch after all.” Her voice was almost a hiss and his shoulder started to burn with her grip on it.

“Father said—”

“Your father is DEAD! It is you who is the king now, you need to start taking responsibility and face the truth. Amalie is dead and she will not magically come back to save your kingdom. You have to save it, not anyone else and I fear that if you do not realise, it will be our all ruin.”

His mother swallowed her next words before she was back to herself. The seething creature returned to its shell. He had never seen his mother like this. No matter how much her words stung, he knew she was telling the truth. She always wanted what was best for him.

Turning the ring on his finger, he bowed his head to her.

“At the end of this I want to see that ring on Aileen’s finger, Niko.” She kissed his cheek gently before making to leave. “I love you, you know that?”

“I do,” he mumbled not bearing to watch her leave, to endure the disappointing look on her face any longer.

She sighed a last time before leaving his chambers, leaving behind an acidic loneliness crawling up his fingers and his arms.