Red Rose Rising

by A J Manney

  Valen looked at Beckam. “I’ll deal with you tomorrow,” he said without any emotion. Beckam full on grinned back.

  “I’ll be looking forward to that,” Beckam told Valen. Zalia didn’t know what to say, so she allowed Valen to pull her out the door. Glancing over her shoulder, Zalia caught Beckam’s wink. Zalia just rolled her eyes, causing Beckam to laugh out loud.

  Zalia’s mind was muddled as she followed Valen out the door and into the hall. He led them down a few doors and opened a door and walked in. Zalia was so lost in thought that she didn’t realize at first where they were. She walked in and sat down on the bed. What in the world is going on? I am so confused right now. I thought he hated me. And now he wants to bond? Yeah right. He’s just confused; he doesn’t really know what he wants. Right? Right! I just need to show him...

  “Zalia,” Valen called out, and Zalia realized he must have been trying to get her attention for a little bit.

  “Oh, sorry,” she said. She finally looked around and realized they were in a very masculine room. A bedroom, and she was sitting on the bed. His bed!! Zalia shot off the bed. “We’re in your room!” she said, completely startled. He just gave her his infamous smirk.

  “Yes, we are,” he said, clearly amused.

  “We can’t be in here!” she said.

  “Why not?” he asked. “We’re just talking. Unless you had something else in mind?” he asked her with a glint in his eyes. He was purposefully trying to get her riled up.

  “No!” she almost shouted at him. Then she tried to get herself under control while he laughed out loud at her. She was so overwhelmed right now. Her thoughts were a scattered mess.

  He took compassion on her and showed her over to a sitting area. He sat on a chair and left the couch for her. She looked around for a moment. “How come you and Beckam have awesome rooms with a sitting area?” He shrugged.

  “Zalia,” he called her name gently. “We need to talk about all this. I know you’re nervous, but it’s going to be okay. We will figure this out together.”

  Zalia looked at him helplessly. “I don’t even know where to start. You hate me.” She felt stupid saying that, but she didn’t know what else to say.

  Valen walked over to where she was sitting on the couch and sat next to her. He took both her hands in his. “Zalia, I have never hated you. I have spent the last few months of my life trying to convince myself that I did because it was dangerous for me to be around you. I couldn’t let myself feel anything for you. The only way I could accomplish that was to try to ignore you and act like I didn’t like you, but I didn’t even do a good job of that. I have thought about you nonstop ever since I first saw you in your father’s castle. I couldn’t get you out of my mind. I was doing an okay job of it until the night of the masquerade ball. After that, I couldn’t keep my distance. I told Beckam I had to leave. I left because I couldn’t stand to be around you and not be able to be near you. I know that it must seem so sudden to you, but it’s not to me at all.”

  Zalia just looked at him, unsure of what to say. He continued on. “We don’t need to rush into anything. We can take our time, get to know each other. We don’t have to get married right away, but...” He stopped for a moment because she had choked on the word marriage. He didn’t say anything, just waited for her to recover. “But as for the bond, we won’t wait on that. I will not sit by and watch you suffer when we could do something about it. Before you argue,” he said as she opened her mouth to argue with him. She frowned but closed her mouth as he went on. “Let me explain the bond to you. Do you know anything about it?”

  “Not really,” she said quietly. “Grandfather explained a little bit, but I’d like to hear it from you.”

  Valen looked into her eyes as he began explaining. “The bond takes place between a royal first-born and the one who carries his or her marks. Royal blood is incredibly powerful. Without a way to balance the power, it will destroy the king or queen. The only way to balance the power is to share the power with someone else. When a royal first-born and the carrier of his or her marks bond, the power distributes between both of them. The bond is a blood bond. When the time comes, we will each cut our wrists. Another royal will say the enchantment. In this case, your grandfather. Then we mix our blood and the bond snaps into place.”

  Valen continued, “When the bond is complete, we will have a mental connection. Simply put, we will be able to hear each other in our heads without talking out loud. Secondly, we will be able to feel each other’s emotions. These are measures of protection. A bonded pair is harder to kill because they know when the other person is in danger or in pain.”

  Zalia’s attention was locked on Valen. While it was insane to even think about bonding with him, she found the entire concept of a bonded pair absolutely fascinating.

  He continued on. “The act of bonding is not intimate at all. We can do the bond without being married, but the feel of the bond is very intimate. I wouldn’t suggest that we wait a very long time after bonding before getting married.”

  And just like that, the conversation went from absolutely fascinating to utterly terrifying. Zalia looked up at Valen. He was quiet now, just looking at her. She could tell he was trying to get a read on her. Well, just keep trying, she thought to herself. She didn’t even know what she was thinking!

  He stayed silent, and Zalia felt like she was supposed to say something, but she didn’t know what. She decided to just be honest. “I really don’t know what to say. This is so much to take in.”

  He nodded. “I know.” He let go of her hands and ran his hand through his hair. “If this was a normal situation, I would never push you into this. But with your healing powers being a danger to you, I have to push you into this for your own safety. I won’t let you continue to hurt yourself. If somebody got hurt, would you be able to withstand the pressure to heal them?” he asked.

  Zalia thought for a moment. “I don’t think I could. It’s hard to explain, but it’s almost like a compulsion. It’s like I can’t not heal. Does that make sense?” she asked. He nodded. “I’m sorry,” she said quietly and looked down.

  He gently tipped her head up until her eyes met his. “Why are you sorry?”

  She just looked at him helplessly. “I’m sorry that because of the marks, you feel like you have to marry me; and because of my healing powers, you feel like you have to bond with me right away. If I didn’t have the marks and my healing powers, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation. You wouldn’t even be interested in me.”

  He was quiet until she finally stopped and took a breath. Then he said, “I obviously didn’t explain myself very clearly to you.” She opened her mouth to argue with him. He held up his hand, and she closed her mouth. “I am very interested in you and was long before I knew about your marks or even your healing power. But I can’t talk you into believing that. I’ll just have to show you. I will take my time winning your heart. I will be gentle and kind with you. But make no mistake, you are mine now. We will be bonded and will get married when the time is right, and nobody will stand in our way!”

  Zalia felt a wave of emotion run through her. She felt she was on the verge of tears and wasn’t sure why. It was just so much to deal with. She closed her eyes, wishing she could process all this.

  “Come on,” he said gently. He took her hand and pulled her up to stand next to him. “Let’s head to dinner.” Zalia allowed him to guide her out the door for a moment before reality set in. She stopped and he looked down at her, puzzled. “I can’t,” she moaned. “I can’t face everybody. Beckam and Raven and Mari... Oh, Mari will give me such a hard time. And Reid, oh your brother! I can’t. I can’t face everybody,” she finished mournfully.

  Valen took compassion on her. “Don’t worry about it. You go to your room and relax. I will go to dinner and deal with everybody. I will tell them what’s going on, so you don’t have to. I’ll bring dinner back to my room. We can eat in here.”

  Zalia shook her head. “You
don’t have to do that. I’m not hungry. Don’t worry about me. You can just eat dinner with everybody else. I don’t want you to miss that.”

  Valen looked down at her. “Let me deal with this. You go rest. I’ll see you in a little bit.” Zalia didn’t know what else to say, so she just walked numbly to her room. “Zalia,” he called a moment later. “Everything will be okay. I promise.” Zalia nodded and walked away.

  She walked into her room and collapsed on her bed. What in the world have I gotten myself into?

  Chapter 17

  Zalia didn’t realize how tired she was until she woke up. She looked next to her bed and saw the plate of food on the table. A cloth was covering it, and above the cloth was a small note. She picked it up and read it.

  I’m glad you were able to get some rest.

  Come find me when you wake up.

  -V

  Zalia’s heartrate picked up just reading the note. She lay back down and threw her arm over her eyes. I’m in so much trouble, she groaned to herself. She lay there a few more minutes, then sat up. She pulled the plate of food into her lap and picked at it. She wasn’t really hungry. Her stomach rolled at the sight of food, but she ate a few bites because she knew she needed to. After she finished eating, she decided to stop hiding in her room. She didn’t know what to do about Valen yet, but she wasn’t a coward. She needed to keep moving forward in her training. She’d missed a lot lately. She decided to head to the training hall. Absently, she thought about the other princes and wondered why they hadn’t shown up yet. She would have to ask Beckam about it.

  She walked into the training hall a few minutes later and heard sounds of training going on in Beckam’s corner, so she headed there, and saw Beckam and Valen training together. They both had their shirts off and were covered in sweat. When they heard her approach, they stopped and looked toward her. Zalia wasn’t in the mood to be babied. “Valen, I haven’t worked on my sword fighting skills for a while. Will you train me for a little bit?” He looked at her for a moment, then nodded. Without waiting for either of them to say anything, Zalia turned away to retrieve a sword from the armory.

  She met Valen in his training area. He had put his shirt back on, and once again she was very grateful. He looked at her questioningly when she walked in. She didn’t want to talk about anything. She just wanted to lose herself in her training and hopefully tire herself out enough to sleep without nightmares tonight. Valen seemed to understand her need to train and not talk. He led her in a grueling practice. They trained together for two hours, with the only communication between them being a few comments from Valen strictly on training. After two hours, Valen finally said. “Okay, we’re done for the night.”

  Zalia argued with him. “Let’s keep going. I’m not tired yet,” which wasn’t exactly the truth. She was starting to shake with fatigue. She was afraid to stop training though, for fear he would talk again. She didn’t think she could handle any more tonight.

  Valen shook his head. “Nope. We’re done. Come on.” Zalia wanted to argue but found she didn’t have the energy. She simply nodded. Then she walked over, wiped her sword down and put it away. She was surprised to see Valen waiting for her when she turned around. He didn’t say anything; he just waited for her and then walked next to her. When they got to her room, Zalia rushed because she didn’t want an awkward goodnight. “Thanks for training me and thanks for the food. Have a good night,” she said quickly then slipped inside her room and closed the door. She leaned her head against the door quietly and heard him chuckle softly as he walked away.

  Zalia let out the breath she didn’t realize she had been holding. She drew in a shaky breath. What a day! She didn’t even know what to think. Before she had a chance to move, she heard a knock on her door. Fearing it was Valen, Zalia stood frozen to her spot. Then she heard Raven’s voice, “Zalia, it’s me.”

  Zalia opened the door. “Quick, let me come in before he sees me,” Raven said as she pushed her way inside. Zalia looked out into the hall.

  “Before who sees you?” she asked.

  “Prince Valen,” Raven replied.

  Zalia stared at her in confusion. “I don’t understand.”

  Raven explained. “Valen came to dinner tonight and told everybody that you carry his marks. He said that because of your healing powers, you two would bond sooner than later. Then he threatened everybody and told them that you don’t want to talk about it and that we are all supposed to leave you alone. Now, tell me. What is going on?” she squealed.

  Zalia laughed at her. “You just said that Valen said not to talk to me about it.”

  Raven shrugged it off. “He wasn’t talking to me, of course. You’re my best friend!”

  Zalia couldn’t help it. Tears sprang to her eyes. She knew her emotions were overwrought because of everything going on.

  Raven looked at her in surprise. “Zalia, what is it? Aren’t you happy that you are going to bond with Mr. Tall, Dark, and Dreamy?”

  Despite her tears, Zalia laughed. “Really? That’s what you call him?”

  “Yep. Mari and I both do,” she said unapologetically. Zalia smiled again. Raven walked over to her. “What’s wrong?”

  Zalia just reached out and hugged her. “I never had a best friend before,” Zalia whispered quietly. “It just made me happy to hear you say that.”

  “Happy? You have a funny way of showing it,” Raven said teasingly. “Seriously, you’ve never had a close friend? You’re a princess!”

  “A princess who was never allowed to be around anybody,” Zalia said sadly.

  “Well, enough tears,” Raven said. “You have lots to talk about. Details, please,” she said as she sat on Zalia’s bed.

  Zalia looked at her warily. “What do you want to know?”

  “Everything!” she said. “Don’t leave out anything. Did he kiss you?”

  Zalia gasped. “No!” It was going to be a long night! Zalia had just opened her mouth to start her story when another knock sounded at the door. This time both Raven and Zalia froze. Then Zalia heard Valen’s low voice.

  “Zalia, it’s Valen.” Zalia turned quickly to Raven who sat on her bed with huge eyes. Zalia pointed to the bottom of the bed and Raven nodded. She quickly climbed off the bed and slid underneath. Zalia straightened the bedding, so Raven was completely hidden underneath. Then she walked towards the door. Taking a deep breath, she opened it.

  Valen stood there holding her dagger. “You left this in my room,” he said.

  “Oh,” Zalia said as she reached for it. “I forgot I set it down in your room,” she said and looked away. She was pretty sure she blushed over saying “his room.” “Thank you,” she said to him. He nodded. “Well, have a good night,” Zalia said as she started to close the door.

  “You too, Zalia,” he said in his low voice, the one that made Zalia melt. Then just before the door clicked shut, she heard, “You too, Raven.” Zalia heard his quiet chuckle in the hall. Zalia smiled ruefully and walked over to her bed.

  “You can come out now,” she told Raven.

  Raven slid out from under the bed. “How did he know?”

  Zalia laughed. “I don’t know. Maybe he knows us too well. He knows you wouldn’t have stayed away.”

  Raven scowled. “Well, anyway, spill it. Tell me what happened.”

  Zalia started with her fight with Beckam and told Raven everything. When she finished telling her about how Valen said they would bond, eventually get married, and nobody would stand in their way, Raven sighed.

  “That’s so romantic,” she said.

  Zalia laughed at her. “You’re a mess,” she said with a smile.

  Raven looked at her. “So, what happens next?”

  Zalia thought about it for a moment, “I guess we will bond.”

  Raven looked at her. “Are you okay with that?”

  Zalia sat in contemplation for a moment. “I honestly don’t know. It’s so much to take in. I like Valen; I really do. It’s just, I thought for so long
he didn’t like me. Now it’s kind of hard to change my thinking. I mean I know he told me, but I guess it’s going to take some getting used to.”

  Raven nodded. “Let him work for it,” she said.

  Zalia just smiled. “I love you, Raven.”

  “I love you too,” Raven said.

  They finished talking a few more minutes later, and Raven headed to her room for the night. Zalia didn’t waste any time getting ready for bed. She fell asleep with a smile on her face, thinking about Valen. It didn’t take long, though, for her nightmare to take hold.

  She walked through the castle with terror shaking her insides. All around her was death. She heard a voice cry out, and she looked over in horror to see her guard killed. She cried out and tried to help him, but it was to no avail. He was too far away from her and she couldn’t get to him. She kept moving towards the throne room, knowing that she was running out of time. Her feet felt like lead, but she kept pushing forward. She had to get to the throne room.

  She finally made it there and threw open the heavy door. Inside she found her family. They talked and carried on as if they didn’t have a care in the world. She opened her mouth to try to warn them, but nothing would come out. She had to get closer. She tried to move forward, but invisible forces held her back. She opened her mouth to try to scream, and again nothing came out. She watched in horror as soldiers surrounded them. One by one, they killed her family. Zalia couldn’t take the pain in her chest. She screamed until her throat was raw.

  Slowly the dream faded, and Zalia felt somebody sitting next to her on the bed. Her dream was still too real to her and she cried out in fear and lashed out at the person. She felt her arms held down and heard a low voice in her ear.

  “It’s Valen. Shh. It’s okay. I’ve got you. You’re safe.” He kept murmuring soft reassuring words, and Zalia stopped fighting him. She clung to him, and he shifted her over and then climbed into her bed and lay beside her. He drew her into his arms and began to rub her back and speak soothingly to her.