May Death Do Us Part

186 Chapter 186 : To hell with my father!

Astrid’s laughter echoed throughout the castle, she threw her head back in amusement and wiped the tears that had flowed out her eyes with her sleeves. She had not laughed so much in years, gods this was a fun game. She had to remember to thank her husband for giving her the opportunity to toy around with the king like this.

“So you’re saying he fell for it?” Astrid chuckled, “he thinks he got so drunk he couldn’t remember sleeping with his wife? I wish I was there to see his face.”

Cassandra merely scoffed at her lady’s amusement, all that mattered to her was that she was able to keep the man away from Melissa for a night, and she promised herself she would not let the king touch Melissa as long as they were on Gurian soils.

“I hear they have left the inn?” Astrid inquired as she poured herself a glass of freshly made grape juice. Because of her pregnancy she could not partake any wine and it was absolute torture for her, sometimes a woman needed to calm her nerves with a bit of alcohol, but her baby took priority so she had all the wine locked up in a cellar and would drink grape juice when she craved.

“Yes my lady,” Cassandra responded, “there is a bard passing through town this afternoon, I’m assuming the king is trying to woo his wife with poetry. He mentioned a few other activities but non to worry about, until they return to the inn to rest, the queen should be safe from any hands on activities.”

“Perfect,” Astrid responded as she sipped the last of her drink, “alright, off with you before your temporal employer thinks you’re slacking off from work.”

Cassandra curtsied and turned towards the exit before her lady called for her.

“Cassandra..”

“Yes my lady?”

.....

“Don’t get caught, the king is a lycan. If he as much as suspects you are a threat to his relationship with his wife, he will not spare you.”

Cassandra gulped and nodded her head slowly, “I will be vigilant my lady.”

“Good girl, I’ll see you tomorrow then.”

*

In a hidden location deep in the forest, Estel was pacing the room nervously trying to figure out what she was going to do next. The potion that she had been using to hide Damien’s true age seemed to be getting less effective. At its strongest, the potion could hold her son in an infant state, which was the age the mages believed he was. And at its weakest, it would still keep him looking like a child of about ten years old, still a very convenient age to keep him safe. But now...

“Mother, if you keep pacing around like that you’ll make my head spin.” A deep voice that resembled that of Aiden spoke in the background.

Estel immediately placed a finger on her mouth and gave her son a disapproving glare. “Keep it down someone might hear you!” She scolded him in hushed tones.

In human years, Damien was eighty nine years old, but his body was like that of a young adult about twenty years of age. He had a firm lean body like that of his father, but a delicate face with purple eyes like that of his mother. His hair was a deep ginger and his skin glowed like honey. Damien had fangs that glimmered whenever he smiled and pointed elf ears that twitch and moved depending on what mood he was in. When his mother would scold him his ears would lower, but when he was happy or excited they would perk up.

“I don’t understand what’s going on, why isn’t the potion turning you into a baby?” His mother sat down on a chair and cupped her throbbing head, “if this is a consequence of your power growing, I may not be able to use the potion as effectively as I did before.”

Damien scooted closer to his mother, when she glanced at him she noticed he had a serious look on his face, she knew that look of determination, he was cooking up some insane idea.

“If I’m more powerful now, then let us escape this place mother, I can get us out of here.”

“Damien we can’t, it’s too risky.” Her son always brought up escaping whenever he was in his true form, it was easier to subdue him and coax him into being patient when he was a ten year old or an infant.

“You keep telling me that these men want me for my power, meaning I must have a lot of it,” Damien pointed out, “what’s the point of having power if I can’t use it to save us?”

“You don’t know what kind of powers you possess sweetie, and quite frankly neither do I.” Estel took her son’s hand and gave him a reassuring look. “We don’t know who we’re up against, we don’t know how many mages are out there. We can’t risk it. I told you your father-”

“To hell with my father!”

Estel squeezed his hand and mouthed the words ‘keep it down’. This is exactly why she kept him as a child most of the time, this age he was in was defiant and a little unruly.

“We have been waiting for that man for almost a century now, where is he?!”

In as much as Damien was upset, his mother was grateful that he was now using hushed tones.

“Are you even sure he is looking for us mother?! Because I think he completely forgot about us and is probably enjoying his life with a new family right now!”

SLAP

Estel glared at her son angrily, but immediately after seeing her hand print on his cheek she felt terrible. She had never hit Damien before, not once, but his words just now had gotten to Estel and she couldn’t control herself.

Damien rubbed his cheek and turned to look at his mother with sad eyes, “mother I hate seeing you like this. Hinging your every hope on a man who may never even come for us, I am here, I can save us I know it. So please, forget about father and put your hopes on me.”

Estel cupped her face in her palms and sobbed silently. What if her son was right, what if Aiden had given up his search for them or worse, he had never even been searching for them to begin with. Eighty nine years, it had been eighty nine years and Estel had not seen anything that could assure her that Aiden was really out there looking for them, except for the threatening words of Kazan, and even those were always vague.

Damien wrapped his arms around his mother and gently rubbed her back to console her. He knew that she loved his father dearly, but he didn’t think his father reciprocated those feelings, because if he did, he would have gotten them out of here a long time ago, it was now up to him to save his mother. It was up to him to break out of this place and take her to a place she could be safe and happy. His father could go jump off a cliff.

*

Renly cocked his head up as the door to his makeshift prison was being unlocked. Theodora didn’t usually come here this late in the evening, was something wrong? Or maybe in wasn’t Theodora at all, it could be the nosferatu prince, or worse, it could be the stranger from his dreams!

Renly moved off the bed and stood a safe distance from the door as whoever it was fidgetted with the keys. Despite whoever came through that door, Renly was not going to go down without a fight, not this time.

When the door opened, Theodora was surprised to see Renly glaring at her. “Is everything alright?”

The dark haired man sighed in relief and leaned back on the table behind him. “I thought you were someone else.”

Theodora closed the door and made her way to the bed. “Aiden is running out of patience little bird, all you have to do is tell me where Estel is and all this will be over.”

Renly shook his head and sat down next to Theodora, “I took an oath, I can do anything else you want, anything. But I cannot disclose the elven Princess’ location.”

“Is that oath worth dying for Renly?!”

The man looked up at Theodora in surprise, she had never called him by his name before.

“If you die that oath will mean nothing! Aiden will kill you, he has no sympathy for humans!” The woman inched closer and looked him dead in the eye. “You’re willing to leave your family behind, your friends, all the people you love because of a ridiculous oath?!”

Renly sat there frozen, captured by Theodora’s eyes, he had never actually looked at her before. She had deep chestnut brown eyes and very smooth pale skin, all the features of her face were highly defined especially her red lips and slender nose, in addition, she had two small horns tucked away behind her long brown hair.

“Is that what you want?!” The woman repeated herself

Renly gazed at Theodora and scoffed, if he didn’t know any better, he’d think she actually cared. “I don’t have anyone like that.” He muttered. His still eyes fixated on hers.

“What...?”

“People I love, a family, friends... I don’t have anyone like that.”