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Sometimes we had to venture to sure for needed supplies, but it was rare as taking the kids with me was hard, and leaving them behind out of the question. Life could be better, easier, I knew this now after being a bird trapped in a gilded cage for so long.
But it was worth it, even now as I guided them hand in hand back to our modest home, cut into rock and filled with what shipwrecked objects had washed up on Soulflare Isles.
If nothing else, I wanted to keep my promise to my alpha, my fated mate, to live not just for the twins but also for him, to honor his memory.
“Once upon a time…” I whispered, clutching my little ones close.
I was finishing my retelling of their father’s story, and mine, minus anything that would fill them with too much terror. It was a sweet, magical story filled with princes, magic, and wicked wizards who were not too evil.
“The end?” they asked in unison, looking up at me with matching purple eyes and bright blonde hair on tan skin, a perfect harmony of our features.
They were hornless, but I didn’t mind. Their pointed ears gave me hope that one day, when I was dead and long forgotten, they could live in Elohime and be accepted.
“The end for now,” I said, nodding.
Raylen leaped up, taking his sister with him, “Let’s go tell the pirate! He said he wanted to hear how it ended.”
“Huh?” I asked as Zenia nodded in agreement, giggling up a storm.
Alarmed, I chased after them as they raced through the sands, up a hill closer to where an old dock used to be, and a thin grassy and wooded area filled with fruit met the sand. Lifting my torn gown made of a discarded flag, I shouted for them to stop, only to be blindsided by a ghost.
There, on the shore, flanked by rows and rows of suited guards, was a man. He wore two blindfolds over his eyes embellished with a symbol I knew well—the symbol of the Elohime throne. His clothing was regal, stitchwork intricate. His waist-length curly black hair was braided back. He had long ears and a soft smile.
But, as he raised his hand to wave at my kids, I could no longer deny it was, “Ziran!”
I gasped, the symbol on my hand glowing just as his did. He ruffled our children’s hair before grinning at me.
“I told you I would return. Believe in me, Rei. The moon will always chase the sun. Besides, you still hold half of my soul. If you hadn't I doubt I'd be here now.”
I was fainting as the phantom drifted towards me and held my collapsing body.
But he was no phantom at all as he fell to the ground with me in his arms. Our children clung to me, wide-eyed with fear yet curious.
“Pirate,” our daughter said, “You made daddy sick. You said he’d be happy to see you.”
Just as he first greeted me in the tower, Ziran felt like an intruder. Because he was supposed to be dead. So how was he here?
“He’s not a pirate. This is…” I stumbled over my words, not sure how to explain that their father was very real, and had not risen from the grave.
“Your father. The prince in the story, remember. I am no pirate,” Ziran said, his tone easy and natural.
He held them in his arms, and I removed his eye patches slowly, his misty white eyes shining with adoration. “One day, I hope to see your faces as clear as Solara’s blessing shines on us. For now, we go home.”
He was still so handsome, yet streaks of gray colored his once lush, curly black hair. And the scars, oh the scars that slashed his face and hands were gruesome. Not because they were ugly. Far from it, they reflected the ugliness inside my heart.
Because it was easier for me, I realized, to relegate my alpha to some fanciful fairytale than to face the fact I abandoned him in that accursed land to die alone.
“Go pack now while I talk with him,” Ziran offered. Too trusting for their own good, Raylen and Zenia did as they were told, followed by a legion of guards.
Though, I thought with a broken laugh as he lifted me, taking me deeper inland, I was just as trusting and naive back then.
“You have nothing to be ashamed of,” Ziran said, startling me, suddenly chest to chest as I stared at his face.
He had removed his vest and elegant shirt to act as a blanket on the ground, laying me on top of it reverently.
“Did you pick up mind reading during your adventures?” I joked lamely, my knees shaking as he parted them, kissing my knee and then my thigh softly.
“No. But even robbed of my vision, you have always been so easy to read. So naive. It’s almost nostalgic, isn’t it, ambushing you, piercing through your prison. Though this time it’s the one inside of your head. Don’t feel imprisoned by guilt a second longer. I am so happy you lived. And now that I have the throne, I’ll make you my precious prince, Rei.”
