AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I wanted to make you happy for a bit, Rei. But we can’t run now. I’ll return with a plan no later than tomorrow after seeing what he is building near the bay. His hideout is buried around here, but not close enough to be consumed with fear,” he said, motioning to a little enclave to our far right.
“I have been crafting a boat in secret, and I fear I must send word to the king. But you will be in danger if I do. So if I must, you must run, take this boat across the shore. It’s dangerous, but the bath is thinner here, the waters swimmable. Hide away until I return for you. You will be sick, I imagine, but could hang on as this place is still under Gotham’s spell. Hang on long enough to come back and forth as need be to feed on the root,” Ziran confessed.
I nodded, satisfied, believing in Ziran if only to manifest a new destiny. Though that wasn’t true. Deep down, I knew he was hiding secrets, but hiding them to protect rather than hurt me as Gotham always had.
So, I truly believed in him. I needed to stop comparing them since it pained Ziran to be compared to that monster. But every comparison reinforced my desire to be with my alpha.
“Please do. During the quarter moon, he’s always in a bad mood,” I said, shaking my head in anticipation of the agony. “So find out what he’s up to soon.”
Ziran’s face hardened, his magic coiling around me protectively, shadows in the shape of small hands pressed against my body. The sight was rather ghastly, but it filled me with warmth, seeing as it was Ziran’s silent way of wanting to protect me.
“…What does the madman do to you during the quarter moon?” Ziran asked slowly, tentatively.
“I’m glad you didn’t ask why since I don’t know. But Gotham likes to play little games,” I said, not wanting to say much more, but I felt compelled to when I gazed up at Ziran’s serene expression.
“He’ll yank harder on my hair. Torture me with my parents’ abandonment and the death of the wet nurse he kidnapped when I was tiny to care for me. Gotham says he’ll abandon me to die without the cure for the poison in my body. Wasting away in that tower, all alone, where no one will find me. And when the mind games aren’t enough… sometimes… He…”
“Overdoses you with the cure,” Ziran finished my sentence, and my eyes widened in shock.
He grimaced, infuriated on my behalf, as he draped an arm over my shoulder and pulled me in. Careful to avoid my horn, my alpha tucked me under his chin.
“How did you know?” I asked.
“It’s an old practice of our people, of Elohimen royalty, to torture traitors and criminals with high bounties on their heads,” Ziran whispered.
I always adored how he said our people even though I was a mere quarterblood. I clutched his chest by his heart, sniffling softly.
“How awful to think of your tiny body racked by seizures. Oh, sweet omega, you do not have much longer to suffer. I promise you this.”
It didn’t seem so horrible until I said it out loud. Giving voice to the seizures and abuse made it worse, somehow.
“I’m sorry, Rei,” Ziran murmured, stroking my eyelids with his hand.
But why is he apologizing? Oh, wait. Oh no!
Furiously, I scrubbed away the tears pooling in my eyes.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t cry,” I said, desperate to regain my composure.
“Why shouldn’t you cry? It was horrible. It is horrible what Gotham is doing to you. So sob on my shoulder if you must, and let it all out. You deserve at least that much from a worthless alpha like me.”
“Thank you,” I said and meant it to my soul, leaning on Ziran as I cried some more. “And you’re not useless. Remember, I hold half of your soul. It’s because of that I still find strength.”
As quickly as the crying spell came, it fled, and we held each other in the waning sunlight silently for a while.
“Is the king over a thousand years old?” I asked to fill the prolonged silence and to change the subject.
I was used to silence greeting the sound of my voice, but in his presence, it was unnerving. After baring my soul so embarrassingly to him, I felt I had to chat or get sick with worry as Ziran glared at the flaming horizon.
“Oh yes, much older, in fact. He’s thousands of years old,” Ziran said matter-of-factly, while I probably looked on with starry-eyed wonder. “Though he’s looking to retire now, abdicating the throne. The old man says he wants to rest. That’s why he sent us all on these fool’s errands.”
“All of us?” I asked, displeased, as Ziran pulled away to put his shirt back on and button his vest.
“My brothers and sisters. I’m the crown prince, but we do not inherit the throne without passing a trial. I’m favored, but my position in the court is not secure.”
He spoke so vividly of his delusion that sometimes I really did believe Ziran was a fae prince instead of a rogue treasure hunter. However, it mattered little to me whether he was a prince or a scoundrel anymore. All that mattered to me was that he was mine, and I was his, and soon, we’d be free of this place together.
“Hmm, so this fated mate business. Does that mean I’d be the future… Erm,” I thought aloud, playing into his game since imagining myself as royalty beside him was fun.
