Chapter 35 The Prince’s Fracture
The Prince's Fracture
I woke up before dawn, in a strange room, the ceiling way too low, the smell of old wood and smoke coming from the walls. For a minute, I was lost and didn't know where I was until the heaviness of it all struck me all at once. I was no longer in the Lycan palace. I wasn't safe. I had fled by night like a fugitive, not because I was weak, but because if I stayed, I would have died.
The small town outside the palace walls was at peace at this early hour. I could hear a cart rolling somewhere in the distance as well as the gentle breathing of people who weren't involved with crowns, councils or betrayal. Slowly, I sat up on the narrow bed my head pounding in a way that had become all too familiar. The wound of my fight with Elder Veyra was healed on the outside, but there was a fog inside my head that I just couldn't shake off.
She was there again.
The woman from my dreams was on the edge of my thoughts as soon as I closed my eyes. I had not known her name when I had begun dreaming about her. All I would feel is a tightening in my chest at every appearance of her body, as if my body was responding to her presence even when my mind wouldn't believe it. Lately, it was feeling like she was getting more and more real. Some mornings, I'd wake up and my heart was beating, my hands were aching like I've been holding somebody who is now gone.
I swung my legs off the bed and stood up; using the wall for support. The crooked mirror by the window gave me back a face that I didn't know. The scar near my temple had gone white, but it remained a mark on me, like the royal bracelet I'd left behind. I removed it the night of my escape from the palace, as I knew I couldn't bear attention I couldn't afford.
My father was dead.
That reality was so surreal, like a story someone else had told me to me that wouldn't quite sink in. King Magnus Kane, the ruler of the Lycan Empire gone by way of a betrayal that festered right under his roof. I remembered holding him as his life slipped away, the anger in his eyes, his hold on my arm as if he was trying to pull me back to the man that he wanted me to be.
I hadn't cried. Not since that night. Grief was sitting heavy cold in my chest like a stone, my chest.
A quiet but sharp knocking on the door broke the silence.
"Tomas," called "Ryder" from the other side. "We need to talk."
I opened the door, letting in him and Elric, and then bolted it shut behind them. They did not seem out of place in the cramped room, two warriors forced to hide like thieves. Tomas's jaw was set, Elric's eyes flashed about, ever sharp.
"Any word from the palace?" I asked.
"Nothing we can be sure about," Elric replied. "But Veyra's people are posing questions."
That was to be expected. Elder Veyra had already attempted to kill me once. He was not about to stop now, especially with the throne so close.
Tomas crossed his arms. "You did the right thing for leaving us. If you'd stayed you'd probably have been arrested or worse."
"I know," I said. "But this doesn't mean that I liked it."
A large silence was thick between us with words that went unspoken.
"The woman," I finally ventured. "The werewolf. I want to know the truth."
Both of them stiffened at that. They must have been so tired of asking questions about the strange woman over and over again.
"I keep seeing her," I continued. "In dreams, in fleeting moments of my waking time, I can sometimes feel her fear, her pain. That's not normal."
Elric let out a slow breath. "No, it isn't."
"Then stop making believe it is," I snapped. "Tell me who she is."
Tomas looked down and then met my gaze. "Her name is Olivia Brown. She'squ Princess of Redcreek."
The name struck me deep, like a door slamming shut, with an echo in an empty space in me.
"Say it again," I urged.
"Olivia," Elric repeated. "Your mate."
The word went through me, an ache in my chest. I couldn't catch my breadth before I could rein it in
"That's impossible," I said even though I knew, deep down, that it really wasn't. "Werewolves and Lycans--"
"Exactly are enemies," Tomas cut in. "Exactly." And that's why everything went wrong."
They filled me in then. About the forest. About a girl who was wounded I should've killed her but I didn't. About secret meetings by the border. About a bond that could not be broken no matter how hard the world tried.
"You loved her," Elric said with a gentle touch of his voice.
"I got my head out, my object - I don't remember that," I replied.
"No," Tomas said. "But your body does. That's why you still can feel her."
Anger flared up suddenly. "You knew all of this and yet you allowed me to roam around the palace like an idiot."
"We were trying to defend you," Elric defended. "The elders said to us don't push your memories."
"The elders also killed my father," I shot back. "Forgive me if I don't believe their judgement."
Turning from them, I looked through the small window out at the pale sky. "I escaped from the palace because I knew I was next". Veyra wants the throne and I'm in his way. "Being connected to a werewolf princess makes me an even bigger target."
Tomas nodded. "Which means that Olivia is in danger too."
The ache in my chest deepened.
"Where is she?" I asked.
"In Redcreek," Elric said. "Surrounded by her own enemies."
I tightened my fists. I can't clearly remember her face, her voice. "But every single instinct tells me that she's important."
"She is," Tomas replied. "More than the throne."
I thought back to my father, the way that he had spat out the word love like it was a curse. He felt that it made kings weak. That duty was more important than everything.
"He was wrong," I said quietly.
Elric looked at me. "About what?"
"About love being a weakness," said I. "If loving her makes me a target so be it." I won't be some kind of puppet to live."
Tomas stepped closer. "What's your plan?"
"I don't know yet," I admitted. At this time, "I'm trying to worry about staying alive." I'll find out who my enemies are, I'll grieve for my father in my own way and someday, I'll make Veyra pay for what he did."
"And Olivia?" Elric asked.
I closed my eyes and felt my tug in my chest tighten.
"I do not remember her," I admitted. "But I won't ignore our bond. If fate made us meet once, it can make us meet again."
Outside, in the town, people were starting to wake up unaware of the prince without a throne sitting in a rented room trying to put himself back together. I opened my eyes, and met the looks of my friends.
I may have lost my palace," I said, "my recollections. But I haven't lost myself."
And I would not lose her, even if I had to fight with my own fractured brain to find her again.