Chapter 22 The Ghost of the Past
Aurora:
I couldn't stop looking at him. As we moved through the forest of Prussia, I stayed close behind the man who had just risked his life to pull me out of that rotting hut. My mind was spinning with questions that felt like hornets in a nest. Why was he doing all of this for me? I was just a girl who had spent the last ten years scrubbing grease off stone floors. I was a girl whose own father had traded her away like a piece of meat.
Did he really care about me, or was I just a point of pride? Maybe he just didn't want to lose something that belonged to him.
I watched him as he walked. He was wrapping his wrist with a piece of dark, torn cloth. Even from a few feet away, I could see the blood. It wasn't stopping. It was seeping through the fabric, slow and dark.
"You will bore a hole in my face if you keep staring at me like that," he said. His voice was a low rumble that seemed to come from his chest rather than his throat.
"Why do you need to do all that?" I asked. My voice felt steady for the first time all day. "You are the King. You told me earlier that you can heal in seconds. Why is that wound still there?"
He stopped for a second, then tightened the bandage. I saw his jaw clench in pain. "It is just for formalities," he said, though I didn't quite believe him. "As a King, I have to show my strength, not my scars. It seems my body is just taking its time today. It happens."
"Thank you," I said softly. I stepped closer to him, my boots crunching on the dry leaves. "Thank you for saving me again, Your Highness."
He stopped moving completely and turned to face me. His eyes searched mine, looking for something I wasn't sure I was ready to show him. "Are you really calling your mate by a royal title? Call me Deacon. Or Demon, if you like that better."
Demon. I bit my lip and looked at the ground. I couldn't bring myself to call him that, even if people did call him the Hollow King. "But how did you find me? How did you know exactly where I was?"
"You know, I am glad you are finally speaking up, but you are starting to talk too much," he teased. There was a small, playful glint in his eyes. He reached down and lifted me into his arms as if I weighed nothing at all. He looked over at Carlus. "Can we finish this journey on foot, or do you think I need to shift?"
The thing about being an Alpha, especially one as old as Deacon, is that they don't have to wait for the moon. They can change into their wolves whenever they want. The rest of us are just slaves to the lunar cycle.
"You don't have to worry, Sire," Carlus said. He pointed toward a line of tall trees in the distance. "The carriage is waiting just beyond the Bridge of Waters."
"Water?" My heart started hammering against my ribs like a trapped bird. "Please... I don't like water. Is there another way? Can we go back without crossing the river?"
I clutched the heavy black jacket tightly around my body. Deacon looked down at me, his eyebrows pulling together in a frown.
"How did they bring you here then? If you hate the water so much, how did they get you across? This is the only way back to the palace before the sun goes down."
"I don't think we have a choice," Carlus said. He stepped forward, pulling a silk handkerchief from his pocket. "Forgive me, Luna."
"What are you doing? Are you—"
Before I could finish my sentence, he pressed the cloth over my nose and mouth. A sweet, thick smell filled my lungs. The world started to blur instantly. The green and brown trees melted into long streaks of color. I felt a wave of nausea hit my stomach. I felt the sensation of moving very fast, like the wind was rushing past me. I knew the Alpha had started to run. Within seconds, the darkness swallowed me whole.
"Luna Aurora? Luna Aurora, are you awake? Can you hear me?"
The feeling of someone gently shaking my shoulder pulled me back to the world. I opened my eyes and blinked against the warm, orange light of a fireplace. I knew this room. It wasn't the King’s huge, dark bedroom where we stayed the first night. This was my own room, the one I was given when I first arrived.
I looked up and saw a girl with kind eyes. "Elio," I whispered.
"Yes, Luna Aurora! Oh, I am so happy to hear you speak. I really am!" She helped me sit up and put some soft pillows behind my back.
"What happened?" I asked. I rubbed my head, which felt heavy. "One minute I was arguing about a river in the forest, and now I am back here. Was it all a dream? Was the King really there?"