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“Why didn’t you just tell me this?!” I yelled. “You could have at least explained yourself when you came back, or sent a letter, or done anything that would have prevented me from being so—”
My throat burned and tears threatened to corner my eyes. I shoved the emotions down to keep them from overwhelming me, but it hurt. My chest was tight, and my breathing became shallow. The truth was, if Bennett had just been honest with me, it would have prevented me from being so lonely for so many years. From feeling so much guilt about the queen and punishing myself for her death.
“Rhia, if I could have told you I would have. That’s why I brought you here today, to show you, and I hoped that your eyes could see past the spell that keeps Vesper hidden.”
“Why couldn’t you have told me?” The irritation in my tone refused to go away.
“There is an enchantment here that prevents the people from revealing any information about Vesper to anyone who isn’t from here. We can’t explain it to others, reveal its location, or even say the damn name aloud to outsiders. Most people here don’t ever leave anyway, so there is no need to tell anyone anything. We are a fully functioning kingdom. We don’t need to trade with Vicinus or Veladis, and we have an abundance of resources that help us thrive on our own.”
“So, you can talk to me about it because. . .I’m from here?”
“Yes, that’s the only explanation. You had to have been born here as a child, or else Vesper would be hidden to you, as it is to everyone else. The entire kingdom you see here would simply just look like an expansion of the forest.”
I had no memory of Vesper at all and yet had a pretty vivid memory of my traumatic childhood, so if I really was from here, I must have only been here for my infancy.
“I never knew my mother,” I said, shaking my head in disbelief. “My shitty father only took care of me for a few years before he sold me to the circus, so it’s definitely a possibility.” My father never spoke of my mother, or at least not that I could remember, anyway, but I had always assumed that she lived somewhere in Veladis. There had been times as I got older that I’d walk down the streets, wondering if I just passed the woman who birthed me. Who would’ve thought that she might not even be from the place I was always searching for her in?
“So, what you’re saying is that everyone is—trapped here?” I asked.
“Not exactly. I mean, I was able to leave and come bring you here. However, I believe it’s in our nature, our blood, to be ruling over all three kingdoms. It’s practically our destiny. Vicinus and Veladis are beginning to be swarmed by Red Bones and we can’t even do anything about it!”
“How do you break the enchantment?”
“Ha!” Bennett laughed sarcastically. “I’ve been trying to figure that out for the past three years. I’ve read practically every book in the library and asked as many elders who were willing to give me information on the enchantment as possible, but they all say the same stupid thing.”
“And what is that?”
Bennett kicked some rocks along the path in frustration. “A made-up legend of some ‘King of the Stars’ who’s supposed to return to Vesper and rule all three kingdoms in harmony, blah blah, basically a bunch of bullshit.”
“How would you know who this so-called King of the Stars is? It does seem pretty ridiculous to keep an entire kingdom waiting for hundreds of years for some person who may simply be a myth.”
Bennett signed. “Supposedly, they’re going to be the one person in the world who can wield both Shadow and Golden blood. Which is impossible, for one, and two, what if they died or something, or what if their second Artis blood never unleashed? There are too many factors to even determine if he would ever exist.”
“Someone sounds a little jealous of this star king,” I said teasingly. “Were you wishing that this legend was about you?”
“No.” He pouted, turning slightly away from me.
Oh, he does.
“Mhm,” I murmured knowingly.
“Okay, fine. There was a time when I was a naive child where I thought if anyone was going to be the destined ruler, then it was obviously going to be me, but the legend is clearly a farce to keep us locked up here as punishment by the stars for who knows what.”
“Well, someone’s bitter they aren’t the stars’ favorite.” I smirked.
Bennett shoved me playfully. “You actually believe in the stupid legend?”
“I never said that.” I threw my arms up defensively. “I don’t know what to believe. I didn’t even know that this place existed until today, so I don’t think I can really have a say on this matter. I will admit, it does seem a bit off that no one else is looking for ways to break the enchantment.”
“Exactly!” Bennett turned to me, his eyes filled with relief as if someone finally told him he wasn’t crazy. “Everyone in Vesper is so content that their king is coming some day and are so sure that the legend is true that they have no problem hiding away here! It just doesn’t make any sense to me. You would think after five hundred years that—”
I stopped dead in my tracks, almost slipping in the dirt at the abruptness of it. “Five hundred years?!”
Bennett sighed again and dragged a hand down his face, as if he couldn’t believe it either. “Yes, Rhia, it’s been over five hundred years since the prophecy was made and the enchantment was placed on the kingdom.”
Silence hung between us as I took in the vastness of the situation.
What the hell were these people thinking? How could they just sit there waiting for some special king to save the day when that legend had probably been misconstrued over the last five centuries?
