by Dahlia Lu
“Trent, I can explain everything,” Raya ran to him and wrapped her arms around him.
“Don’t touch me!” Trent shoved her back. A whirlwind surrounded him and began pulling in all of the movable items around him. In a blink of an eye, he was gone.
Raya sobbed against the cloaked man’s chest.
“Take back your core, Nala.” The man advised and then handed over the golden core to her.
“No, I want you to place a curse on it. I want you to implant the last of my memories in it so it would serve as a lesson. I will never allow myself to fall in love with him again!”
“Nala…!”
“A part of me still wants to give him one more chance. I will gamble with him one more time. If he cannot accept me, then I just want to disappear.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Sayan knew he was somewhere between life and death.
His body ached all over and felt as heavy as lead. His flesh felt raw and tender, as though it was turned inside out. His brain was throbbing inside his skull and he just wanted to bash it open and pull it out. His eyes flew opened when he remembered what had happened before he lost consciousness.
“Nala…!”
“Your Majesty…!” A number of voices called out. “Your Majesty, you’re awake!”
He grabbed a hold of the person closest to him. “Where is Nala?”
“You must not get up, Your Majesty! The poison hasn’t completely been expelled from your blood yet!” The female servant cried out.
“Stop acting like you give a damn about me and tell me where my Nala is!”
“You must calm yourself first, Your Majesty. If you are like this now, we dare not tell you.”
Sayan released the woman and then climbed out of the bed. He shoved away a servant who was trying to help him. There was only one thing on his mind and he must find her. Why did his feet feel like they were rooted to the ground? Why was the bedchamber spinning around him?
It didn’t matter. He must find her, even if he had to crawl.
“Your Majesty…! You must calm yourself!”
“Where is Nala!?” He shouted at them.
“She did not make it, Your Majesty. Her heart stopped just before the physician arrived.”
A sickening feeling churned in his stomach. Sayan forced his legs to obey him and he staggered his way to the next room. His heart skipped a beat when he saw her lying serene on her bed. Her lips were darkened by the poison. He rushed to her side and leaned his ear on her chest. Her heart was still.
He began to feel the effect of hunger… a kind of starvation that no amount of food could sate. He hated the feeling. It brought back with it too many painful memories. This moment would unquestionably be one of them.
Sayan climbed onto the bed and gathered her into his arms. He pressed a kiss on her silky hair.
“When you wake up, I will definitely punish you.”
Essa hadn’t been able to sleep well for the last six nights. The plan had gone from trying to kill a mistress, to the attempted assassination of a king. The whole kingdom had issued a full investigation. If they found out the truth… if they found out that she was the one behind the assassination attempt, then even her position could not protect her. They could execute her and her father would not be able to do a thing.
“What should I do?” Essa muttered. “What should I do?”
“Do not despair, my queen. I was very careful not to leave anything behind,” the servant bowed her head to the ground.
“How is His Majesty doing?” the queen asked. If he lived, she would be able to beg him for pardon. If he died, there would be no one she could appeal to.
“He is very unstable, my queen. His Majesty has locked himself in with the girl’s corpse and has refused to see anyone. Everyone in the palace is concerned for His Majesty’s mental health. The nobles had sent their henchmen into the King’s residence while he was drowsy from the effect of the poison and stole the girl’s body to bury. I heard that His Majesty went completely berserk when he found out and destroyed everything in sight until he lost consciousness.”
Essa let out a sign of relief. “At least he is still alive.” She turned her head toward the courtyard. “What is that noise outside?”
A group of guards barged into the queen’s quarters with weapons in their hands.
“Insolence!” Essa screamed out. “How dare you come here without being summoned?”
The guards stepped aside to make way for the guard captain.
“Princess Essa of the Eastern Kingdom, by order of the king you are by stripped of your title as Queen. You are hereby banished from the Northern Kingdom.”
“What is this? This verdict cannot be from His Majesty! I must have an audience with His Majesty!” Essa demanded. “I want to speak directly with His Majesty!”
“His Majesty will not grant you an audience,” the guard captain replied. “The carriage is waiting for you at the gates, Princess Essa. You will be returned to your Kingdom.”
Essa pushed him out of the way and ran to the door. The guards grabbed her by her shoulders and wrists. “Let go of me! I want to speak to His Majesty!”
“My queen!” The servants attempted to push the guards away.
“Hold both of them down,” the guard captain instructed. “And there is one more thing I must inform you of, Princess Essa. Your kingdom has fallen into the hands of the Southern Kingdom. Your father has been executed.”
“No!” Essa screamed out. “You lie! My father couldn’t have possibly been killed! Why haven’t I heard of this?”
“You are hearing it now, aren’t you? I wish you a safe trip home, your highness.” The guard captain signaled to his guards to let the two women go. “Please take your belongings with you. My men will return in an hour to escort you and your attendants back to your kingdom.”
The guard captain and his men bowed before they left.
“My queen!” The servants crawled to the Essa as she fell to her knees sobbing.
Everything had gone up in smoke. Her kingdom had been sieged. Her father had been killed. Her title had been stripped. Sending her back to her own kingdom was a death sentence. How could things turn so wrong so quickly?
“How could this have happened?” She cried. “If it weren’t for Sayan, I would have been able to send troops to save my kingdom. My father wouldn’t have been killed! And that greedy King who destroyed my home! I hate him! I hate them both!”
“This is not the time to despair, my queen. We must escape!”
“No!” Essa wiped away the tears with her forearm. “I will not run away to become a lowly commoner! I was born a princess and I will die a princess. I will return to my kingdom and I will plot my revenge.”
“They will kill you, my queen!”
“No, that old king would not kill me. He would have his fun with me first and then he might try to kill me. Before then, I will seduce him. I will make him grovel at my feet. I will advocate him to attack the Northern Kingdom when Sayan is still weak from the poison. I will turn them against each other. I will have them destroy each other! I will have my revenge!”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Nala gasped deeply and filled her lungs with air.
Her still heart picked up a beat and then eased into a rhythm. The blood that lay stagnant in her veins was flowing again with each pump of her heart. Her eyes snapped open. They emitted a soft glow and then it faded away.
It was dark.
She has impeccable vision even in the dark, but she could not see anything in front of her. When she tried to sit up, her forehead hit the ceiling. She tried to roll to the sides, but there were two walls. She was boxed in. Could it be possible that they thought she had really died and buried her?
Nala placed two hands on the lid of the coffin and pushed with all of her might. It barely budged. She tried the other two sides, but also failed. Panic took over her and she started struggling and kicking inside the box. It didn’t help at all. She was dee
p underground, under tons of dirt.
The thought of being permanently buried frightened her to tears. How long must she stay in this dark space? A normal person would run out of air eventually and die, but what about her? Would she have to spend the rest of her immortal life inside a coffin?
“Help!” She cried out. “Sayan! Trent! Anybody! Help me!”
It was too dark. It was too cramped. It was too suffocating.
“Get me out of here please! I don’t want to stay in here forever!”
Nala quieted down when she heard a sound vibrating through the earth. The dirt on top of her coffin was being moved. Could it really be true? Had someone come to her rescue?
There was a crisp and clear sound on the coffin’s surface. The coffin opened and the first thing she saw was the shadowed figure of a man underneath the full moonlight. She instinctually bolted up and wrapped her arms around his neck. If she had never cried before, then this would be her first time.
“I was so scared, Sayan! I was so scared that I would be stuck in there forever!”
“Hush now, everything will be alright.” He petted the back of her head. “I know you don’t like to be in small confined spaces.”
It was not Sayan’s voice. Nala opened her eyes and saw strands of platinum white hair rustling in the wind. She slowly released him and then stared into his translucent blue eyes. His hands caressed her face as he used his thumbs to wipe away the tears on her cheeks.
She lowered her eyes and another line of tears spilled out. “I was so scared, brother. They buried me.”
He sighed and then helped her stand up. “Silly girl, I would never let you get trapped under there. Fai did most of the digging, so I can’t claim all of the credit.”
Fai was sitting and licking his dirty paws. “Thank you so much, Fai.” She petted his head. She then turned back to Trent. “I am so sorry.”
He smiled. “What are you sorry about?”
“I am apologizing for Raya.”
The smile on his face died out and was replaced by a darker expression. “Does it mean that you remember now?”
She shook her head. “Not entirely. I only saw glimpses of what happened, but I can piece the story together. I just want to apologize to you.”
“You don’t have to apologize.”
“I don’t know what drove me to do what I did, but I am truly sorry for what I have done to you. I shouldn’t have forced my feelings on you. I’ve taken advantage of your love for me, and I used it to hurt you.”
“Stop right there.”
“I know words cannot compensate for what I did, but at least let me finish the apology. You cannot know how guilty I felt when I saw those scenes in front of my eyes. I was unreasonably selfish.”
“Enough!”
“From now on, there will be no more of that. I will honor you as my brother and nothing more…”
She immediately pushed him back when she felt his lips on hers.
“I told you to stop right there!” He thundered.
“I don’t…I don’t understand…” Nala stared at him. Her attention was briefly distracted by flashes of lightning racing across the sky followed by rumbling of thunder.
“Don’t speak to me again until you have remembered everything. That includes your feelings.”
And then he was gone.
“I don’t understand at all!”
Trent strode down the long corridor of his castle. The windows along the corridor shattered by the energy that he inadvertently released, but an ancient spell on the castle pieced the windows back together as soon as they were broken. His usually calm and composed self, had gone on vacation, along with his sensibility. The Nala he knew would never say those words to him.
Nala never apologizes, because the concept of right and wrong does not exist in her world. Nala lived her life without an ounce of regret. Nala would have never shown remorse. Nala would never have pushed him away. She would have held him back. She would have kissed him back. She would have pleaded for to him to stay with her.
What was she thinking? Wasn’t that what she wanted all along? Did he not want her to give up pursuit on him? Now that she had given up, shouldn’t he be content?
Trent paused and stared at his reflection on of the window’s surfaces. It made him feel angrier, so he picked up his pace again. He reached a room at the end of the hall and entered. When he spotted a young woman with long black hair and soft violet eyes sitting with a child in her arms, he went to her and rested his head on her lap.
“I am in pain, mother. I am suffocating. It started hurting since Nala and I separated and it hasn’t stopped ever since. I feel so alone inside my head. When I look in the mirror, I only see an empty reflection. What do I need to do to get things back to how it used to be? How can I make her become a part of me again?”
She gently stroked his platinum hair with her free hand. “Some things in life you just can’t get it back to where it used to be no matter how hard you try. What are we talking about again?”
He looked up at her gentle face and then lowered his eyes again. “It’s nothing.”
“You know, Trent, this is the first time you have ever come to me for advice, but it looks like you can’t even bring yourself to tell me what it is that troubles you.”
“I am afraid you would be disappointed in me. If there is anything I can’t stand, it would be the disappointment in your eyes.”
“Don’t be silly, Trent, I have always been proud of you. Nothing would ever make me feel disappointed in you.”
“You will not say that when I tell you that I am in love with my sister.”
Trent jerked his head up when he heard a soft laughter coming from her. “Trent, have you forgotten that you are my one and only child? Since when did you gain a sister?” And then she sighed. “Unless you are talking about your other self.”
“You knew about that?”
“I am your mother.” That was all the explanation she provided him.
“How will I be able to get rid of these feelings? How will I be able to cheat the forces that are drawing us together? I feel like I don’t have control over myself anymore.”
“I don’t know how the times have changed, but back when I was still human, they called that being soul mates.”
“This is completely different.”
“Is it really?” His mother cradled the child in her arms when it stirred. “I can’t answer that for you. If you think that she is your sister, then she becomes your sister. If you think of her as your soul mate, then she becomes your soul mate. It is only a matter of how you look at it.”
“Is it really that simple?”
“It is simple if you want it to be simple. It is difficult if you want it to be difficult. I only want you to be happy. Are you happy, Trent?”
“There was a very brief time when I was truly happy.”
“What happened?”
“I…ruined it.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Nala was greeted by the guard captain at the gate. There was a pale expression on his face, but he did not forget his proper etiquette and he escorted her to the palace. He kept stealing glances at her and purposely brushed by her a few time to see if she was still tangible. After all, it was his duty to patrol the palace ground. It was probably him who had found her dead.
As she walked through the palace, the servants avoided looking at her, as though she was some sort of monster that had just risen from the grave. Perhaps that was more literal than she thought. Despite her appearance, everything else about her just didn’t cry out human.
“I know my way from here,” Nala said to the guard captain. He was getting so nervous around her that she was afraid he was going to faint if he walked with her any longer. He bowed to her and then turned to walk the other way.
The King’s residence was in a chaotic state. The furniture was in pieces and the curtains puddled on the ground. There was not a servant in sight. There were also blade marks on the walls.
What could have happened here? Why haven’t the servants cleaned it up?
She entered through the half opened door and then closed it shut behind her. It looked like the bed was the only thing intact. The only source of light in the room was the full moon shining through the glass window.
She let out a sigh of relief to see that he was still alive.
Sayan lay on his back with his forearms blocking his eyes. She leaned forward and gently nudged him by the shoulder. She called his name twice before he responded by removing his forearms from his eyes. She smiled when he stared into her pale green eyes.
“I have always loved your eyes. They are fresh and clear like spring’s dewdrops.” He glided the back of his fingers down her velvety cheek. “I have always wondered how soft your face would feel.” His fingers brushed by her lips. “These soft lips nearly made me lose control; but if I had lost control, then I would never be able to forgive myself. I do not want to treat you like every other woman. You are so much more than that. I don’t know if I will ever have another chance to tell you that.”
“If you are so afraid of not being able to tell me that, then you should not have buried me,” she said in a half-angry tone. She stood up straight again and rested her hands on her hips. “It was dark and confined and I really didn’t like it!”
Sayan bolted up and then grabbed her hands. “Is it really you?”
“How long has it been?”
He pulled her toward him and trapped her in his embrace. He buried his face on the side of her neck and pressed her body tighter against his. Fortunately she was not as frail as she looked or his strength would have collapsed her ribs into her lungs. At times like this, she wondered if he even knew his own strength.
“I can’t breathe,” she whispered. The heat was rising up and if he held her any longer she would be burnt to a crisp.