"The King is back."
Four words that changed everything.
Four words that brought happiness with a shimmer of fear through her heart.
Eli was back.
Anok had been the one to bring the news to her, and he had not been happy to see that she wasn't in her room, along with the fact that Seb was not performing his duty, but the news had put a hold on whatever displeasure he bore towards the whole situation and Belladonna bolted through the door, past him, heading for the stairs.
The thought of the nightmare she had woken up from a while ago was long lost, the hammering of her chest from the fear of seeing the dragon's eyes trapped in that particular gem that she was always dreaming about was now lost on her, along with the familiar, yet unfamiliar voice she had heard in her dream.
It had called her a name she couldn't pinpoint and her mind would have been occupied by it, if those four words hadn't come to swipe the worry right out of it, and taken a dwelling place in her chest.
"The King is back." The whispers filled the hallway. Even though it was the dead of the night, servants were running around, bumping into each other as they did, everyone was trying to get to the door to see him.
Anok was in front of her, parting the way, and the people split like a sea on the stairway, although someone was rushing up to them with a torch in his hand.
"Seb," Anok said curtly, his voice promising punishment and Seb looked away from him to the Bride, knowing what his fate would be.
Why did he always have to get in trouble anytime he had to protect the Bride?
"My Lady. The King is in the den."
Belladonna nodded.
She would go to the den then, but it seemed he wasn't quite done.
"He is in there with Lady Kestra, they are doing something to the dragon."
"So..."
"You have to wait for him, My Lady. He is not to be disturbed."
She nodded before he even ended the statement.
That was justifiable.
After what had happened with the dragon recently, it was right that he had gone to the den first, it was proper that they had gone there to take care of the problem first.
Her eyes flickered to the stairway, some guards were already there, getting people to return back to their respective businesses and retire for the night, while assuring them that everything has been taken care of.
Among the crowd was Collin and her heart skipped a beat when she saw him, it wasn't him that scared her though, it was the look in his eyes, they held a warning in them, a warning of something that she would love to deny.
Anok let out a gruff by her side, snapping her attention back to them, it was perhaps a sign of displeasure that he didn't know about this, before Seb.
With that much said, Belladonna returned to Eli's study, Anok followed after her and Seb escaped at the first opening he got.
Delaying his punishment.
Belladonna had half a mind to feel guilty about Seb's situation but once again, she was bothered by other things to really care.
He would be alright.
He always was.
Although, she still tried to take the blame upon herself while they walked up the stairs. Telling Anok that she had told him to take the night off.
If that had let Seb off the hook, Anok didn't show it, he only nodded respectfully and followed behind her without a word.
"I will just wait for him." She said when she got to the door of Eli's study.
Anok's agitation was plain in his eyes, the one he had been hiding ever since they came on the King's floor. Standing guard on the King's floor, right outside the door to his study must feel unnatural to him.
"I will keep the door locked." She dangled the key in front of him and his calculative eyes seem to bore a hole into the study's door, weighing his options, then he looked at both ends of the hallway.
He folded his arms behind him.
"The King is back, I am safe here."
He arched her an eyebrow and made a throaty grumble. "I will stand guard till the King dismisses me."
There were implied words in the statement that Belladonna caught on to.
He wasn't Seb.
She appreciated his concern for her, even though she knew that it all bored from his sense of duty and nothing else. If she wasn't a responsibility that Eli had given him to undertake, he might not even care, but still, she appreciated how much he tried to always perform his duty.
He felt like a brother she never had, a friend, it was getting harder to see him as anything less.
The study didn't hold the comfort it did earlier, although the images of her nightmare had been banished to the back of her mind, she had something new to worry about.
Belladonna started working on the complaints, continuing from where she stopped.
Soon enough, she was filled with giddiness.
Why was she so down before?
Eli was back!
He would be so impressed at how far she had gone when she showed him this, they would be together again, and this time she would not allow any barrier between them.
It would be blissful.
Her Eli was back.
___
The gem felt unfamiliar around Eli's finger, he could still feel the buzzing of energy through the new gem that had been merged into it.
Placing the dragon fully under his command again had taken too much from him but the person that came out weaker and more affected by the whole situation, was Kestra.
Kestra would usually be the one to take care of herself in situations like this, but she was so weak that the physician had to help out. Although she had already had her fill from her birds, she was physically weak and needed to regain that strength.
"All done, your Majesty." The physician stood up, packing up his bag and tucking it underneath his arm. "She just needs rest."
"I feel so much better already," Kestra said, looking up from bed, her hands curling around her bedsheet as the memory of how the King had brought her up here in his arms played over and over again in her head.
He still hadn't answered her question yet.
She still didn't know if he could remember that girl or not.
The King dismissed the Physician, who dashed out at the first flick of his hand.
The door slammed shut and the room fell into silence.
"I feel better, I promise. You don't have to worry."
The shadow that cast over his mask in the dim light of the room made Kestra feel uneasy.
Her uncertainty about what he could remember was putting her on edge.
If only she was a mind reader. If only that was one of her abilities, how great that would be.
He came towards her bedside, taking off his mask and wiping away the blood that dribbled down his nose.
"Better enough for me to feed?"
There it was.
Her answer.