by Anna Hill
The Forsaken Royal
Annabelle’s Harem Book 2
Anna Hill
Contents
Copyright
Read Book 1!
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Free Bonus Chapter
Copyright
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Copyright © Anna Hill 2018
Read Book 1!
This is the second book in the Annabelle's Harem series! Click here to read the first book 'The Forgotten Royal'
1
Emerald-green grass tickled my ears, making me a little bit itchy everywhere it touched. But I didn’t care. It felt good underneath me as I looked up at a crystal-blue sky.
It was one of those skies that didn’t feel exactly real. Like the clouds were so round and perfect they looked like they’d be from a movie. It all looked so fake but felt so real.
There was a feeling that I got from it… a feeling I hadn’t had in a very long time. I couldn’t exactly put my finger on why, but I felt like I was in the midst of chaos lately. Like everything in my life was a disaster.
I rolled over to look at my mom. She had her hands tucked underneath her head, her dark brown hair falling in ringlets all around her. I got her hair color but not her hair texture. My hair was straight like my father’s.
She glanced over at me with a smile. “What is it, dear?” she said.
I shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m just feeling very… confused,” I told her. “Why exactly are we here?”
“We’re here to soak up the energy, of course. We’re here to get in touch with ourselves.”
Right. That made sense. In a weird way.
My mother was beautiful. In a way, her looks were timeless. She was in her fifties, older than most mothers. Significantly older, in fact, considering most of my old friends had teenage parents.
But she didn’t look fifty, and you’d never guess she was unless she told you. She didn’t look twenty either. But it wasn’t because her faced had aged or anything. It was because she had this element of wisdom about her. She had always looked wise beyond her years. And she was.
But that begged the question…
I looked at her seriously. “Why didn’t you tell me, Mom?”
She raised an eyebrow at me. “Tell you what?”
“About who I actually am? About who you are?”
She let out a heavy sigh. “Ah, I knew this moment was coming… I knew I’d hear this question.”
“So answer it,” I told her. “Why didn’t you explain everything to me?"
She looked at me sadly. “Don’t you think I wanted to tell you? Of course I wanted to tell you. But when you were young, I wasn't sure you could keep this secret. I feared that you would find out and you would tell somebody and put yourself in extreme and immediate danger. More than I wanted to tell you, I wanted to protect you. I wanted to keep you safe from harm’s way.”
I rolled my eyes. “What good that did, huh?”
She frowned. “I know I failed. If I had known what was going to happen… Of course I would have done things differently. Extremely differently. I thought I had time, Annabelle. Forgive me.” I could see the tears welling up in her eyes.
I reached out and grabbed her hand. “Of course I forgive you. I love you. I miss you…”
Wait, why would I miss her? That made no sense. She was right here with me.
I could feel a state of confusion coming on. “Wait…” I whispered.
My mom jolted up. “Don’t do it again, Annabelle. You have to learn to fix this. You have to learn how to understand it. We're never going to get anywhere if you don’t understand it.”
Now I was even more confused. “Understand what?”
“Understand what you’re capable of. Understand what is going on. Honey, please, don’t fade away without understanding.”
“Understanding what?” I asked again, more desperately now.
"Don't you remember how many times we’ve gone through this? You have to remember. You have to know.”
And suddenly, I did remember.
I remembered why I missed her. I remembered why things didn’t feel quite right here.
Because they weren’t quite right.
“You’re not really here with me. You’re dead. You and Dad… you both died. This isn’t real.”
Now actual tears were streaming down her face. “Annabelle…”
But they weren’t streaming down her face… because she wasn't here. None of this was real. I knew that now.
I blinked, and the beautiful forest views disappeared in an instant. Instead, I was staring into a dimly-lit room with metallic walls.
Another one of those damn dreams… I both loved and hated dreaming of my mother.
I raised my head off of the pillow, a lumpy mess of a thing. It was yellowing in the corners. That may have bothered me if I hadn’t grown up in complete poverty. Yellowing, lumpy pillows were actually kind of nostalgic.
Unfortunately for me, nostalgia wasn’t exactly a comforting feeling. Remembering my past and how it felt to be in it… it wasn’t a pleasant feeling. My past was rife with terrible things and nightmarish situations. Then again, so was my present.
Most of my life had been unbearable, I guess. The only time I was starting to feel comfortable was when I lived on the island with the shifters… And I couldn’t exactly be nostalgic about a time that was only a few weeks ago, could I?
I desperately wanted to go back in time, though. Every damn day I berated myself for being such an idiot, for failing to see what was right in front of me. For years, I trusted Jacob. More than trusted him… He was my long term boyfriend, for crying out loud. We lived together.
Yet I couldn’t see exactly what he was doing to me?
I could try to blame it on the death of my parents. I could tell myself that my fog of grief made me distracted. Or I could blame the mediations that turned me into a walking, talking zombie. But those felt like poor excuses. I should have known.
I had one purpose in this life: to overthrow the humans currently in power. To do to them what they did to my ancestors so many years ago. It was my responsibility to return Elderan to its former glory.
And I failed.
I didn’t see any way of getting out of this. The first day that I’d been captured, I was hopeful. I thought that I would be found, despite King Robert insisting that without my magic, there was no way for that to happen. Still, I kept the faith.
But over the course of those first few days, my faith grew weary. It didn’t help that they tortured me in a way that specifically kept my spirit down. I didn’t even have a bed the first week. Instead, they kept me chained up to a chair, where I had to sit up twenty-four hours a day, even while sleeping.
It was horribly painful after the first day. My body wanted nothing more than to shift, to contort out of its previous shape. But there was nothing I could do. My chains kept me from moving too far. I could barely shift in my chair, and it was constantly uncomfortable.
On top of that, they gave me about one meal a day that first week. It was just oatmeal, which was whatever. I never ate particularly good food growi
ng up, so it didn’t even bother me that it was bland, tasteless.
What bothered me more was that they wouldn't even loosen my chains enough for me to eat by myself. No, instead, they made Jacob feed me. It was disgusting. Just the sight of him made me so nauseated I was barely able to eat. To be fed by him… it was a nightmare.
They broke my spirit that first week. So when they offered to take me out of the chair and give me a bed to lie on, one where the chains would be loose enough for me to feed myself, of course I jumped at the opportunity.
And that’s where I’d been ever since. It was still mostly torture, being constantly in this room alone. But being able to sleep lying down felt like a blessing. Yeah, that’s how screwed up my mentality currently was: it was a blessing just to lie down and not to have my nightmare of an ex-boyfriend feed me food.
I knew what they were doing. I understood that they were trying to wear me down. But I felt powerless to stop it… especially in this room.
I’d become so used to training in the forest, bathing in the lake, staring out at the ocean, that to be confined in these metal walls was such a drain on my energy. I wasn’t able to do magic anyway, not with this necklace around my neck, but the first day I was here I could still feel the energy of my magic even if it was ineffective.
Now I felt nothing. It was like in the days before I started my training. I felt human again.
I was still determined to try, though. Every single day. I was sure that I couldn’t out-magic what they’d put around my neck… but I still tried.
Mostly, I just tried to put out some energy to my boys. I thought about Angelo, Lio, and Rhyion.
On any given day, I picked one of them. I thought about everything I adored about them, how much I missed them, the shape of their face, the edges of their body, things that they said to me, things I said to them… I especially loved the days where Lio was my choice.
I missed him so much. I wanted him more than anything. He had become the greatest light in my life and being in this dark, dank room without him was hell.
I knew the things he’d say to me if he was here. I could practically feel the way his hand stroked the back of my head. He was within my reach… barely, just barely. I could sense him.
Without this necklace wrapped around my neck, I actually truly could sense the boys. Each one of them. We seemed to have a psychic connection. I knew when they wanted me somewhere. I knew where they were. I could tell when they were thinking about me. I wouldn’t say it was necessarily a psychic power of mine or anything. It was just a sense that I had. I could always sense them, wherever they were. We had an incredibly special connection.
They were my fate, after all. My fated protectors, my trainers, the men who were here to help me reach my full potential.
I missed them all so much.
I knew they had to be missing me too, worrying about where I was and if I was okay. I hated that I had done this to them. I hadn’t just hurt myself, I hurt them too. That was worse for me.
I should have known the love I had with Jacob was never real because I never felt that way when we were dating. That intense feeling of love and longing simply wasn’t there with him.
Then again, at that point in my life, I had never had that intense feeling. I’d never truly loved anyone besides my parents, and that was of course a different kind of love. I didn’t know what I was missing out on.
Still, I was grateful that I was never tricked into feeling this way about him. I never truly loved him. He may have convinced me for years that he really cared for me and I was an idiot for that, but it could have been worse. I could have fallen for him and now been heartbroken that he had betrayed me.
I was more disgusted than heartbroken. I was already done with him, anyhow. The only reason I was even in this bed chained up was because I had broken up with him. So at least he didn’t have that on me. And I even told him that once, when he was feeding me that disgusting oatmeal.
“I never loved you, you know,” I nearly spat at him.
“Like I fucking care,” he responded with rolled eyes.
One thing I didn’t understand, no matter how hard I tried, was why King Robert didn’t just have me killed now.
What was he waiting for? On the first day I arrived, I was sure he was going to try and kill me soon. I didn’t think I’d make it through the day and was shocked when he made no attempt on my life.
Why not? I knew they were always saying they had a bigger plan. I fit into some bigger plan… But what plan could I fit into?
The only way I fit into Robert’s plan was by not being in it at all. If he pushed me out of the way, he would be free to be king without a worry. I was the last witch there was, after all. Nobody else was going to come for his crown with me gone.
And with this stupid black lace around my neck, there was nothing I could to do protect myself. I’d be an easy kill. So why not cut me out of the picture now and be done with it? Every day I stayed alive seemed like just another risk.
Then again, maybe it really wasn’t a risk for him. He was probably confident that this necklace would leave me powerless forever, and that there would be nothing I could do to stop him. And he was probably right.
Still, it took more energy to keep me around than to just destroy me.
I stared at the same metal wall that I stared at every day. I hated that it wasn’t a normal wall, either drywall or wood. On wood or drywall, you can see little patterns in the crevices or the woodgrain. I could make up little pictures in my head.
Yeah, that’s how bored I was. I was wishing for a wall where I could imagine tiny pictures. This truly was mental torture.
I told myself it was good that the wall was boring, though. It forced me to use my imagination and focus. Back when I was training with the boys every day, these were what I exercised. Focus and imagination were key to my magic. So even though I wasn’t actually using magic, it felt good to exercise them. It made me feel like I was training.
And I used that imagination and focus to remember my boys. Today, it would be Lio.
I didn’t even need to close my eyes to picture him. Staring at the wall was enough. I could see his piercing blue eyes staring at me, his shaggy red hair falling in wisps on top of his eyebrows. I could see every tiny sunspot on his cheek. I was sure that even in my mind, I had each freckle in the exact right position.
I put every inch of his body into my head. His jawline, the hills of his ab muscles, the gentle curve of his waist. Out of pure imagination, I could see him lying out right in front of me just as he used to on my bed at home.
It was impressive how good my focus had become. It was far better than when I had left, even when I was training every day. Perhaps that was because I used to only train for so many hours at a time. Now my entire day was only me trying to imagine the boys were here.
And this particular vision was the best one yet. I could feel him here. It was like his body warmth was near me. I reached out to touch the outline of his arm muscles, and I could actually feel him.
For the first time since I’d been kidnapped, I almost didn’t feel alone.
I stared into those blue eyes. I could see the tiny lightning strikes of dark and light blue in his pupils. He stared back and a frown began to cross his face.
“Annabelle, I miss you,” he whispered softly.
For a moment, I jumped back. I had actually heard him speak. It was as real as if he were in this room with me. Never before had any of the figures I’d imagined been able to talk to me.
“I… I miss you too. I’m so sorry.” I wasn’t going crazy, I knew he wasn’t real. I didn’t believe I was actually talking to him.
But I responded anyway because it was cathartic. There were so many things I wanted to say to him, so many things I wanted to apologize for, and I might never get to say them to his face. So the best thing I could do was say it to him in my mind.
“Where are you, Annabelle?” he asked me.
“I… I don’t rea
lly know,” I told him. “They never did tell me my location. I guess that was on purpose, but let’s be real, who could I tell anyway? I’m guessing I’m back in Elderan. All I know is that I’m in a room with metal floors and metal walls. There are no windows. There’s nothing of the outside world I can see. I get the feeling I might be underground. Don’t ask me why; I have no reason to know that. It's just a sense I have. Like I’m surrounded by dirt.” I was probably right, too. Before being captured I had been feeling a strong connection with the earth. I could sense it. I did feel as if I was embedded in it.
He put his hand on my cheek. “Why haven’t you returned to me?”
My eyes began to well up with tears. I knew it wasn't real, but damn… it felt like it was.
“I want to so bad. I can’t use any magic. I’m chained to a bed and I’ve got this thing around my neck… I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to come back to you. I’m so, so sorry.”
“What are you sorry for?” he asked. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“I did, though,” I told him. “This is all my fault. This all happened because I trusted Jacob. I actually thought he cared about me, and… I couldn’t see it was all a trick.”
That was the only consolation of being stuck here and not seeing the boys… I didn’t have to explain to them that I was the one who created this mess by ever dating Jacob.
And, okay, I could forgive myself for dating him. I was young, I was addicted to a medication that blurred my thinking and emotions. I didn’t even know back then that I was a witch or that anyone was after me.
But I should have known when he showed up on the island. I knew who I was then. I had powers then. And it made no sense that he would be there. I should have seen right through his act.
I’d failed everyone.
“Annabelle, you need to calm down.” He reached up and put a hand on my cheek again, and I could actually feel its warmth. “You need to be calm if you’re going to get out of this.”