78. The sweet prince

“Aidan,” she started weakly, staggering to her feet.

“Is that why?” He asked, turning away his face and putting a hand over it, as if he couldn’t believe the horror of what he heard.

“Is that why you are no longer happy? That you would rather not eat?”

“Aidan,” she hiccuped, not knowing what else to say.

“And why you have decided to attack them head on?” He asked, inching closer.

“I understand if you do not want to talk about it- or anything. But you do not have to suffer alone. You do not have to be tormented by the past and do everything yourself. I want to help you,” he asked earnestly.

“Just let me..... Let me hug you,” The Prince asked.

Reya nodded mutely and he did, engulfing her in his arms.

And while she cried into his chest, those heart wrenching sobs leaving her mouth, he soothed her over everything. He rubbed her back and told her that it was going to be okay, that her burdens weren’t just hers anymore, that he cared for her and he would ensure she got back on her feet.

“But I want the people I call my family,” she blinked up at him.

“I put them into all of this trouble. I need to save them,”

“Leave it to me,” The First Prince declared.

“I have to go. I have to save them,” she shook her head.

“Your dragon is on a hiatus at the moment and I don’t think it’s safe for your mental health to be in the lands of your assaulter. Take all the rest you need, but I will be going into the clan to get everyone back. Give me their names and I will get everything sorted. Don’t forget the children,” he added quickly.

“Dragon children aren’t worth a dime a dozen. I don’t want to leave any of them behind,”

“But Aidan-“

“It’s all so convenient,” he argued.

“The last time someone tried to steal your cure- or rather Alpha Charles tried to ship it out of the kingdom- you came running back to the red dragon clan. He’ll expect you to come back again- he will want to trap you,” Prince Aidan reasoned.

It was a good point as well, one that she could not argue with.

Reya nodded and wiped her eyes, but Prince Aidan caught her hand in his and wiped her cheeks by himself.

“I suppose you are right. Please bring back all of them. My hands are stained by so many sins. I cannot imagine them dying for my sake,” she whispered.

“You have my word,” he leaned in and brushed his lips over her forehead.

“Promise me one thing Reya,” his voice was low, soft and compassionate, a vast contrast to Alpha Charles only a few minutes ago.

“What?” She quaked, looking up into his electric blue and hazel eyes.

“Tell me you will never hide yourself from me when you are in pain. I’m certain you can remember we have laughed together,” he said.

And she nodded, recalling his snide remarks she pretended to hate but secretly giggled at.

“It’s only fair that you show me how badly you hurt so I can heal your wounds. I don’t want you to keep crying alone,”

“I’ll try,” she whispered, and nestled right back in his chest.

Her own chest ached when she realized Aneira would have loved to be here during this moment.

****************

“The Royal Physicians are requesting a meeting with you, Rey Rey,” Jessica said, leaning into her room.

Reya sighed and dropped the last moon carnation she was trying to revive from the dead before turning towards Jess.

Jessica’s eyes softened as she made contact with Reya. Her heart beat quickened, and she wondered why she even assumed that Jess must have known what was going on.

A few hours ago, Prince Aidan and his court of shadows had sneaked out of the clan and embarked on a journey to Scotland. She had given him the best information she had of the Red Alphas, the names of everyone that was most likely in the dungeons and now they were on a rescue mission.

Reya was brooding with anxiety so dense she had to go back to her Moon Carnations and nurture them to keep her mind busy.

“Is there a problem?” Jessica asked, noticing Reya’s expression.

“No,” she shrugged, looking away.

“It’s just that- it’s nothing,” she decided against telling Jessica anything.

“Rey,” Jessica frowned, folding her arms.

“I know everything,”

Reya blinked back in shock, her heart tightening painfully in her chest.

“I apologize,” she quickly added, her green eyes suddenly troubled.

“But I did not understand you. You slept for a month and now I hardly understand what is going on in your life. I am your ally- but you did not tell me much about your sudden slander against the red dragons. You could have told me that you were visiting your ongoing project- but I knew nothing except for the fact you were leaving the castle. I am your ally, I have sworn myself to your service and I am a founding member of your court but you don’t share anything with me. How can I help you then? I had to send Sienna- my shadow after you... and then, then I found out,” she added weakly, her face paling.

“And I am sorry. I only wanted to ensure your protection but I ended up-“

“I understand,” Reya said faintly.

“It was inevitable,”

Moreover, she was soon realizing that she had not been treating anyone right. Everyone was confused at her sudden aloofness, her sudden anger for the red dragons and her detachment.

Lady Jessica was indispensable and here she was, causing one of her only few allies to lose faith in her.

“You are not upset?” Jessica blinked in shock, her green eyes widening.

“I’d just- I would prefer it if no one was aware,” she sighed.

“I want to be able to get past it. I don’t want pitying glances from people. I just want to forget it happened,”

“You have to register it,” Jessica held on to her shoulders.

“You have to acknowledge it so that you can overcome it. Shoving it to the back of your mind- it does no good except haunt you and hover over your mind like a ghost. And I fully support you damning the Red Alphas but you should not focus your energy on this fight being about vengeance. It is about doing what is right- even when we live in a corrupt kingdom. When your driving force is vengeance then- the justice you want to rain down upon their heads will not satisfy you. You can put a dagger through Castiel’s chest but it will not take away the pain of the past,”

Reya looked away, blinking back her tears of anger and frustration. She knew that she was going on a blind rampage of anger and revenge and knew more than anything that this will never be enough.

For as long as the memory of Castiel snapping her legs in between his dragon teeth burned in her memory, she would never be happy.

“I suppose you are right,” Reya murmured bitterly, a new wave of anger burning in her chest.

This anger was for the fact Jessica had pointed out the truth to her.

“I have a meeting,” she wiped her eyes, mindful of her makeup.

“Please brief me on the slightest details. And I would like to know how I can get my shadow. You shouldn’t risk your life without one while I loiter around with yours,”

****************

The Royal Physicians did not host meetings in The Great Meeting House or The Golden Castle as she thought.

Instead, it was inside the Royal Dragon clan’s main hospital. At first, Reya was not quite certain that it was a hospital, for the place was as large as it was beautiful.

White stone bricks cemented together formed a building of more than five floors. She glided between the giant pillars and into the white marble patio before encountering the huge doors of the hospitals.

The insides of the hospital were tidy and clean, the familiar smell of antiseptic bristling her nose. Even though the hospital was beautiful and twice as large as the hospital she owned back in the Red dragon clan, they were obviously far behind in their medicine practice. She had not seen the equipments used but she could tell from the sick and deathly smell that permeated the air.

Finally, Reya was led into the room to meet with the Council of Royal Physicians.

She was rather late, she soon realized, for only two seats were vacant.

She inhaled, putting on that pasty white mask on her face that hid her emotions and glided to her seat.

The council was absolutely silent, showing that she was the reason for this meeting.

“Lady Reya,” A doctor wearing a badge that said Henry spoke first.

“We have called this meeting today over your cure and Draconoma,”

“What about it?” She asked.

“The numbers are rising again. Towards the South of The Royal Dragon territory where the Blue Duke rules. The Grey and Blue dragon clans are affected as well. Productions and distribution of the cure stopped right about three months ago,” he explained.

“And while the cure may be solely yours, despite you being a member of our ranks, we have the authority to sanction you,” he added.

“You were once honored by the dragon king for curing our population, Lady Reya. That honor came with responsibility. You should have ensured that the disease was completely wiped out before you relaxed,”

“I was not relaxing,” Reya snapped.

“I was being tossed up and down this castle. I’m certain you were there when the Dukes laughed at me in court for running away with the cure on my back. I have brought it here because I intend on wiping this disease for good. I will also work on a vaccine,” she announced her plan.

“No one is attacking you, Lady Reya. But surely you must have heard,” an elderly woman with a faint smirk on her face announced.

“Heard what?”

“The people are saying you are wielding the virus to your advantage. You let them suffer so that you can swoop in again and act as savior to help with your rise to the throne,”

Of course she had heard this from Jessica, but it still hurt nonetheless. Still, she had the perfect way to right this. She could use the method the people were predicting to win their hearts.

“That’s disconcerting,” she remarked, leaning into her seat and gaining a few opposing glares.

“If you do not start pumping out the cure into the masses, we will have to take control of it,”

“I’d like to see you manufacture something that you don’t even know the machinations of,” she replied Coolly.

“We have every right! Our constitution states that we can take control when one of our own is lacking,” a sharp face woman with a long jaw hissed.

“But I did not object you,” Reya chuckled, her laughter not quite reaching her golden brown eyes.

“But you are obligated to share the secret of the cure with us!”

There was it. There was the greed.

“I’m not. If I am capable of producing the cure, then it is none of everyone’s business. This meeting was called so I could be confronted about the cure not being circulated. I have thousands of them ready to be dispatched, if you didn’t know,” she grinned wickedly.

“And once my team arrives, I will start distributing them. That is all, isn’t it? You want me to produce the cure and I have it. Any other problems?”

“But-“

“Any other problems?” Her voice hardened.

The physicians recoiled at her tone.

“We were only meant to raise concerns. That is all,”

“Good, now have a great day ahead of you. I look forward to raising the standards of your medicine practice,”

And with that, she sprung up to her feet and left the meeting hall.

***********

Reya was finding it hard to sleep. She could not stop obsessing over Prince Aidan and the fact that he had been gone for over Twelve hours.

Was he going through difficulties? Was he trapped? Was he safe?

Reya was beginning to regret leaving him to navigate her home by himself. She tossed and turned in her bed, wondering when he would be back.

Wondering when her dragon would be back.

Sweat beads were already forming on her forehead as she worried and worried. Her life at the moment wasn’t the best and her mate was probably going through hell for her.

She sat up in her bed, deciding that she needed some fresh air from balcony. Connecting with Kairo while her dragon was gone was becoming a harder thing to do than necessary.

It could be that the bond between them was from her dragon. Now, Kairo was gone more often than not and it was becoming harder to study the stubborn bird.

Reya heard flapping of wings from her balcony and was so certain that Kairo had come back to her room that she relaxed in her bed, waiting for him to come to her.

But then she began to hear the footsteps of a man- as though he were tiptoeing and her ears pricked.

“Kairo?” She inclined her head, reaching for the dagger behind her pillow.

“Is that you?”

Silence.

Reya’s heart began to beat wildly, fear and trepidation icing her veins.

Suddenly, a figure leaped from the darkness and before she could even drag out her dagger, the man was on top of her, pressing her neck into her pillow.

She struggled against the sturdy muscles of her assailant and tried to scream, but he was cutting off her oxygen supply.

When black dots started to cloud her vision, she numbly felt her dress being hiked up or ripped apart.

*”No,”* she thought feebly, trying her hardest to kick and fight.

“Hello Rey Rey,” Castiel’s voice breathed down her neck.

Cold sweat ran down her spine. Castiel could not have left Scotland, could not have sneaked into The Royal dragon clan and could not have infiltrated her room.

This had to be a dream.

Castiel could not be choking her in her room, trying to make her faint so that he would rape her again. But it was all so convenient- him sneaking back into her life to take her while the first prince was away.

“I hear you’re going to get pregnant this time. Let’s see how you’re going to be Queen with my baby in your stomach,” he cackled evilly.

And with that, he pressed a white handkerchief to her face.