Luka
I’d spent the majority of my afternoon hearing accounts from those outside Dullahan who had seen daemons flying through the air like a flock of bats. When I’d posited that this could be what they were witnessing, everyone in attendance seemed to take offense. Clearly, they didn’t see the humor in my joke.
“Well, is it possible we were wrong about dragons? I mean, no one has seen any in centuries, but they could still exist.” Sams suggested, posing the question to appease the citizens.
One of the witnesses stepped forward, a deep crease in her forehead. She was middle-aged, with speckles of white dotting her feline snout. “You think what we collectively saw and described as daemons—which we know are real—could be an extinct creature from fairy tales?”
She snorted in disbelief at Sams, and then quickly rolled her eyes at him. Without warning, she shifted her gaze over to me and waited for me to chime in. Her eyes were searching, almost begging for a response from me.
Gods, I hated being Regent.
“Linda,” I breathed, releasing air through my nose. “Can I call you Linda?”
She furrowed her brow, a look of confusion on her features. “My name’s not—”
“Great.” I interjected, itching to be done with all this daemon business. “So listen Linda. I’m the regent of the Crown while the Prince—” I paused, not sure how to word it. “While he’s away. I don’t know anything about dragons or daemons. What I do know, is that no one was hurt. With the Driech still at large, I can’t afford to send any men on a wild daemon chase. We’ll keep our eyes peeled, but, for now, there’s not much we can do.”
Linda flashed me an intimidating snarl, her lips pulled back and teeth bared. Sams quickly stepped forward and interjected, pulling out his retractable baton as a warning to anyone who had ill intentions. His movements were authoritative, and he was determined not to let the situation escalate any further.
She took a step back, staring past Sams and glaring at me. “When exactly is the prince scheduled to return? I think he’d like to know how his regent has been running things in his absence. Actually, I’d like a word with the King the moment he steps foot in Dul.”
My mouth dried completely. The King. It still shocked me that no one knew, even though I’d witnessed the bitch wipe everyone’s memories clean.
No one knew he’d never come home. Never step foot inside the palace again. Did that make me a traitor to the Crown for not stepping up and saying anything? If anyone ever learned what happened, would I be tried as an accomplice to his murder? I’d be hanged for Baz’s crimes because I’d been too cowardly, too shocked, to stop him as he ripped out his own father’s heart. And I’d nearly fainted when the goddess took a hearty bite out of it while it still thumped in her hand.
“Sams,” I said between yawns and theatrically waving my hands in circles. “I’m tired. If Ba—the Prince returns, wake me. Otherwise, consider my locked door a do not disturb sign. I haven’t had a good night’s sleep in weeks.”
A month, to be exact. Actually, a little more than that. Ever since Elm’s visit during the equinox, I’d barely slept over three hours at a time.
Something about that man just stirred up unwanted feelings. For years I’d put up with his asshole demeanor, his sex addiction, everything. I was there for him every time his father whipped him for misbehavior. I’d fetched the herbs he needed for the healing salve so the gashes wouldn’t scar because he’d been too embarrassed to ask Mags. Even applied the damned stuff.
He knew every one of my dirty secrets except one. And I thought I knew all of his. I knew he didn’t love Em when he proposed. Knew it was to appease his father. Or piss him off. Whichever seemed more likely back then, I can’t remember. But the day before he took off for the Hunt, he’d looked at me in the eyes and said he loved me.
And I thought — gods, I was so wrong. He’d ended things with Em rather abruptly, giving her no explanation. And I thought, just for a moment, he felt the same way I did.
And the next day, he was gone. Not so much as a goodbye. A fuck you. Nada.
Sighing, I slipped into my room and dropped my pants to the floor. My mind was utterly numb with consuming thoughts of Elm, and Baz, and the Driech as I climbed between the silken sheets. Heavy eyelids drooped closed as I remembered my last conversation with Elm. His back pressed against the tree trunk, muscles flexed as he whispered his confession into the wind.
“I want you to know that I love you, Lu.” He’d spoken. “You’ve always been the one person I could count on.”
And as I drifted off, I realized how utterly stupid I’d been. He had said goodbye. I was just too ignorant and caught in my feelings to see it.
* * *
Sams jolted me from my sleep five hours later with his loud pounding at the door. I rolled over in bed, feeling the comforts of my feather pillow pressing against my skin. Disappointingly, I pulled it up over my head and groaned miserably, not wanting to accept that it was time to rise.
When I didn’t respond, the knock sounded again with even more urgency. I swear if it was about the damned daemons again…
“What do you want?” I snarled, still refusing to leave the comfort of my bed.
“Sorry to bother you, sir. But you said to tell you when the prince returned. He’s in his study.”
Another groan escaped my lips, and I peered out the window. The moon was at its peak, and the stars twinkled with hope in the dusky night sky. Hope was something I’d lost sight of lately. Hard to feel anything besides fear when your King was murdered by your best friend who’d teamed up with the devil herself. But the starlight warmed my heart, reminding me that Baz wasn’t completely lost.
I dressed quickly and wandered down the long hallway to the office. By the time I made it, Baz was slumped over in the desk chair, asleep. Feylight illuminated the sharp angles of his face. Deep dark circles brushed beneath his eyes, and his unkempt hair nearly reached his shoulders. He’d neglected to shave for quite some time, so he had a cast of stubble climbing down his neck.
Part of me wanted to blame Rhen for his abrupt change in behavior, but the truth was he’d been slowly, walking down the crazy path for a while. I’d watched it happen and didn’t do anything to stop him. From his obsession with finding “the girl” and prizing the crown from his brother’s grasp, to falling so quickly for her–I’d missed all the signs that darkness was shadowing him, waiting for him to slip into insanity and fully immerse him.
There was no one to blame but me.
Even if I’d ignored all the signs as his Second, as his friend, I should have done more.
A tired sigh broke free of my chest, releasing all the built-up tension with it. I padded to the corner of the room and pulled out a thin throw blanket from the top cabinet. Fresh linen wafted toward me as I unraveled the folded the soft material and wrapped the prince in it.
Maybe it was a trick of the light, or maybe just my own desire to see him happy again, but I swore I saw the corner of his mouth curl into a smile. And for the briefest moment, I recognized him as my old friend before it slipped, and he withered back into the shell he’d become.